Skulduggery Pleasant - Kidnapped
by goXve
Summary: Valkyrie gets captured by a person that wants revenge on Skulduggery for giving up on Lord Vile and helping with killing Mevolent, since they fought together in the magical war together with Mevolent. Rated M because of blood, torture, strong language and sexual themes.
1. Prologue: Taken Away

She turned around but could not see anyone. She wrinkled her forehead in a pensive wrinkle while continuing walking backwards, but slower now. At the same time she turned around, the feeling came back.

 _The feeling of being observed._

She shook her head and continued walking without looking behind her shoulder. It was only she who imagined. There was no one else there besides herself. Soon she would be at Skulduggery, and then she would forget that she at all had been feeling observed. She probably would not tell anything about it to Skulduggery either, since she was in no danger.

 _As far as you know_ , a voice in her head said which she quickly ignored. She had listened to that voice too many times in the past and it had led her to turn into a killing machine named Darquesse. She had thought that voice belonged only to Darquesse, but that was not the case.

 _The voice was a part of her._

She looked up and saw Skulduggery's house fifty meters in front of her, making her smile and forget about being observed and what she had done in the past (at least for the moment). She ran the last bit and saw that he was at home since his black Bentley Continental of 1954 model was standing on the driveway.

She reached the stairs and took no time to breathe out before opening the door and threw herself in. The first thing she met was a dark hall. She looked around and saw that it was bright in one of the many living rooms that existed in Skulduggery's house.

All rooms apart from two were living rooms, since Skulduggery did not have to eat, sleep or wash himself because he was a living skeleton. The remaining two rooms were a kitchen and a bedroom with attached bathroom which Skulduggery had let install for her since she had and still spent a lot of time with him. Since she was a human, she needed her basic needs like eating, sleeping and shower occasionally.

She said nothing but instead went to the light source where she found Skulduggery sitting in front of a desk where he was reading a book. The sight made her smile and she could not help thinking about _what_ he was reading. Just as she was about to ask him, he looked up at her and she could see him smile when he saw who it was that had come for a visit.

"Valkyrie", he said, closing the book at the same time as he stood up. He approached her and gave her a hug. "What are you doing here? Misunderstand me correctly, it's nice to see you, but it's unusual for you to just pop up in front of my doorstep without calling or texting first."

Valkyrie continued to smile and hugged Skulduggery back. She laid her head against his chest and breathed in his scent. He smelled of expensive suit and something else she could not put her finger on. The only thing that came up in her head was... _safety_. Skulduggery smelled safely, just as you can feel safe when you see a picture, a thing, an animal or another person.

She used her aura vision and she could now see Skulduggery's aura. It brightened with a clear red color and also enclosed her with its warmth and glow when Skulduggery embraced her. The red color symbolized Skulduggery's powers and personality and every time she saw a red color similar to his, she always became happy and found herself with a smile on her lips.

"You are beautiful, Skulduggery..." whispered Valkyrie and smiled up at him.

Skulduggery leaned his head in a way that told Valkyrie he was thoughtful. "Believe me, Valkyrie, I'm _way_ too aware of that. What I do not know, however, is what _you_ mean by it?"

Valkyrie laughed and said, "Your aura. It shines so clear and with such a warm fervency. I can not describe it with any other word. It is beautiful, which means that _you_ are beautiful."

Skulduggery also laughed and shook his head. "You are also beautiful, Valkyrie. With or without aura."

Valkyrie nodded. "I know. It's hard to be me sometimes."

This prompted Skulduggery to laugh again and they both went out to what Valkyrie called for the "master living room" as it was the largest living room of all those in the house. Valkyrie sat down on the couch and laid her feet on the table in a sigh of relief. The walk here had taken on her powers and it was not strange that she felt it now that she was relaxing.

"Valkyrie, what have I said about feet on the table?"

" _That feet fit best on the floor or in a pair of shoes while tables are available to put things on and then especially things that you want out of the way."_

"What are your feet doing on my living room table, then?"

"I needed to stretch them out on something. Did you know I've walked from Gordon's house all the way here? My feet are pretty tired, you should know. They have rights just like you and me, don't they?"

"Why did you not take the car or asked me to pick you up? It is unusual for you to walk so far. You usually always complain as soon as we walk a longer distance."

Valkyrie winced as if someone had given her a shock. She had just remembered why she had chosen to walk instead of taking the car. She had felt observed for a period of time and even earlier today when she left Gordon's house. She had chosen to let Xena be left at home in Gordon's house, as she alone wanted to find out if her suspicions were true or not.

 _If someone observed her in anticipation of being able to strike._

Valkyrie hesitated before answering Skulduggery. Should she tell him what she suspected? It might not even be any danger. It could as well have been an animal that happened to walk the same way as she did.

 _Sure, just you imagine that, Valkyrie. An animal that gets so curious about you it's deciding to persecute you for_ days _? Hardly likely._

"Valkyrie."

Valkyrie was interrupted in her thoughts by Skulduggery's voice. She looked up at him with an inquiring expression on her face. "Yes, Skulduggery?"

"Answer my question."

"Oh... Well..." Valkyrie hesitated before giving Skulduggery a dubious smile. "Because I felt like it?"

Skulduggery put his arms crossed over his chest and looked at her with an expression that told Valkyrie that he would have raised an eyebrow if he had had one.

"Okay, I admit!" Valkyrie put up her hands in front of her in a defeated gesture. "I think someone has followed me for several days and spied on me. I do not know what this person wants me, but I have a feeling that it's nothing nice."

Skulduggery said nothing for a while, but just kept looking at her. When he finally said something, it was not exactly what Valkyrie had expected. "So you mean that you were walking all the way here just _to make sure_ your suspicion sued? Valkyrie, it was extremely stupid and irresponsible by you. What if the person that is after you had attacked you? You do not know who you are dealing with or what that person can do. You could have been killed!"

"But I did not!" Valkyrie got up from the couch and stood with her legs wide apart and her hands tied alongside her sides. "I can actually take care of myself, thank you very much!"

"May be, but you have not yet learned to fully control your powers. Damn, we do not even know _everything_ you can do! We have no idea how you would react if this person suddenly jumps on you and attacks you. What if you lose control and do something you'll regret later?"

"Worst what you care suddenly, then!" Valkyrie got something dark in her eyes. "Confess, Skulduggery. You do not want to let me go alone because you're afraid of what I'm going to discover inside myself. You're afraid I'll be a new Darquesse again, except with other powers. After all, I've done it once, so what's it that says I can not become it again? That's what everyone else thinks, so why would not you do that too?"

Skulduggery let his arms fall down alongside his sides, and Valkyrie could see that he was hurt. She wanted to apologize for what she had told him, because she did not want to hurt him but stubborn as she was she said nothing. After all, he had begun so he had to apologize first!

The silence leaned between them like a dark cloud on an otherwise clear blue sky. None of them said anything, but just looked at each other. Valkyrie with an evil glimpse in hers and Skulduggery, who only had eye sockets and thus could not show any feelings through a pair of eyes, radiated pain through his body language.

After a while that for Valkyrie felt like an eternity, she noticed how her body felt heavier and heavier, as if someone had put heavy weights over her shoulders and back. She collapsed and laid her hands in front of her face while a wounded moan escaped her. She hated when they argued and especially when the argument was about her and her choices. After all, she was 25 years old and an adult woman, she could take care of herself. Sometimes it felt as though Skulduggery did not understand that, which made her pissed off. He had, after all, known her since she was 12 years old and should therefore be able to understand how she thought and why she did the choices she made.

Without thinking, she threw herself in Skulduggery's arms and began to cry heavily. Where all the tears came from she did not know for sure, but she had her suspicions. It had not been easy getting back to the magical society since many still saw her as Darquesse and were reminded of everyone they had lost every time they caught a glimpse of her. In addition, she had been struggling a lot with PTSD, nightmares and sleepless nights.

She was exhausted psychologically and it did not help her that somebody was spying on her and that she did not know what he or she wanted, plus that she just had let all of her anger, frustration and pain go out over Skulduggery, her mentor and best friend who had not done her anything.

Skulduggery laid his bony arms around her in a hard embrace. He said nothing, but just hugged her. Even though he was dead and a skeleton, Valkyrie thought he was so warm and soft against her. She had never thought it was strange to hug him, even though he had no skin or muscles.

 _His arms were the only ones she could feel completely safe, calm and loved in._

"Forgive me, Skulduggery!" Valkyrie sobbed and clenched her hands hard around his suit jacket. "I meant... none of what... I said..."

"Sch, it's okay, Valkyrie..." whispered Skulduggery in her ear and stroked her back. "I know you did not mean it. It's okay."

Valkyrie smiled despite the tears and despite that she felt like a real douchbag against Skulduggery. It did not matter that he said it did not do anything and that he knew she did not mean it. She had nevertheless seen his wounded expression and it hurt her more than it probably had him.

"It's not okay, stupid!" She looked up at him with tears running down her cheeks. "I saw how sad you became of my words, Skulduggery. I saw that I was hurting you, even though we both know I did not mean it. That's the funny thing with words: they can hurt as much as they can make one angry or happy. Forgive me, Skulduggery."

Skulduggery stroked away some of her tears on her left cheek and Valkyrie could see that he was smiling. "Sometimes I wonder if you're not too wise for your own good, Valkyrie."

First, Valkyrie just stared at Skulduggery before her face broke into a big smile and she started laughing. Skulduggery always knew what he would say to get her out of her gloomy mood. It was one of the many reasons why they fit as well together as partners. "That's me, a hundred-year-old being stuck in a body of a 25-year-old."

Skulduggery laughed and gave her a new hug before pushing her away and putting his hands on her shoulders. He looked her in the eyes and asked "Friends?"

Valkyrie nodded and smiled. "Friends."

"Good. Then maybe we can return to what we talked about before, without any more interruptions?"

Valkyrie grimaceed. "Do we have to?"

"Valkyrie, someone has spied on you for several days and you do not know what he or she wants. I'm having a hard time imagining that this person has planned something nice for you. I think you may be in danger and do not want to expose you to unnecessary risks."

Valkyrie sighed and rubbed her eyes in a tired gesture. "Here we go again... Do I never get any rest?"

"This may not be what you want to hear just now, but in this profession you can expect people to kill, or at best, hurt you. Both of us have enraged, injured or killed people who have had close relatives, friends, companions or colleagues who wants revenge."

"Sometimes I wonder if we do not have _a little_ _too dangerous_ job."

Skulduggery tilted his head. "I thought you liked when it was a bit dangerous? That was one of the reasons why you chose to become a detective, right?"

"I was 12 years old, Skulduggery. How many 12-year-olds understand the meaning of what is 'dangerous' to the extent we are dealing with daily?"

"So you mean that it was extremely stupid and irresponsible of me to take you with me as I did? If you have forget it, you actually had my hat as a _hostage_ , Valkyrie. That's something I'm not taking lightly, should you know."

Valkyrie laughed and would just answer when the window next to her exploded in a sea of glass splitter. She threw herself down on the ground and rolled around to escape all glass. Fortunately, she wore her armoured clothes Ghastly had made for her so she did not cut herself on the glass.

As she looked up she could see a shadow coming in through the window. It flew itself right at Skulduggery that fell to the ground before turning to her. Without Valkyrie knowing how she knew it, she realized that this was the one who had spied on her. She could not see if it was a woman or a man, but she could feel the hatred that radiated from the person.

She was just about to get up when she got such a hard kick in the chin that she saw stars. Before she could back away to get a little room to breathe, she felt how a pair of strong arms lay around her waist and lifted her up. She just looked up to see Skulduggery sit up and stretch out a hand toward her before the shadow jumped out the window.

The last thing she heard before the darkness surrounded her was Skulduggery's voice that shouted _"Valkyrie!"_


	2. The Shadows Will

**The reason this chapter is so dark is because I found out a few weeks ago that I was pregnant and me and my fiancé looked forward to becoming parents. Then on Wednesday evening the 4th of April 2018 I miscarried... The fetus only got 9 weeks old...** **I have not felt so happy, which you probably can understand and that's why I decided to make this chapter so dark. So I could get out some of the bad thoughts and feelings I am feeling at the moment... I do not know when I will update next time, so please be patient with me...**

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Skulduggery stood up and ran after the shadow that had taken Valkyrie. He just had time to jump out through the broken window before he saw how both of them disappeared in a wave of shadows. "Necromancer... No wonder I could not see the person. He or she used their shadow magic to hide their true identity. Clever, I gotta admit... That I did not understand that directly!"

Skulduggery held up his hand and read the air in hopes of being able to feel if Valkyrie was close by, since not all necromancers could shadow-walk that far. Unfortunately this particular necromancer could shadow-walk far enough for Skulduggery to not be able to feel anything. He instead decided to search the area around the house to see if the necromancer had left any traces behind him- or herself that could lead Skulduggery to him or her.

At first glance everything looked as usual. He could not see any broken branches, moved stones, foot- or other imprints that could prove someone had sneaked around the house and had eavesdropp them. Skulduggery crossed his arms and let his head slide down to the chest. If the necromancer had not looked at them from the ground, there was only one other option and that was from above.

He looked upward toward the trees that loomed up in front of him. It was windless and nothing moved, giving Skulduggery a sense of a pair of invisible eyes that watched him. He did not move, just listened for the slightest little noise that could tell him if his gut feeling was right.

Nothing happened for a few minutes. Just as he would go in among the trees and examine them, he perceived a movement among the tree leaves that made him again stand as still as a statue. In the brighter parties where the last rays of the sun penetrated, Skulduggery could see a male figure looking down at him. The figure did not move, just looked at him with hate in his eyes. The man had black hair, green eyes and a beard.

"I suppose you're here to prevent me from looking for Valkyrie and whoever it is that has kidnapped her. Tell me, are you a bodyguard who will protect the necromancer, or are you also involved in this?"

The man continued to give Skulduggery the silent treatment as he jumped down from the branch he had been sitting on. He got up and before Skulduggery had reacted he had the man in front of him. He got a severe blow in his chest, which made him fall to the ground where he rolled around a few times before he got up again.

Skulduggery put his arms in front of him in a guard the moment the man came to him again. This time he was prepared for the attack and could parry while waiting for an opening to appear. However, it turned out that it would not be as easy since this man was very skilled in close combat.

At the same time as the man took a second to recover, Skulduggery took his chance and gave the man a fisticuf in the face that caused the man to back one step. Skulduggery did not give him time to breathe, he immediately followed up with a kick against the man's knee that made him stumble. Quickly, Skulduggery ended it all with a blow to the throat that caused the man to fall unconscious to the ground.

"That takes care of that", said Skulduggery to himself, and corrected his suit jacket that had been wrinkled during the battle. "Now it's just to wait till this fine gentleman wakes up so I can... _interview_ him a bit."

Skulduggery carried the man into the house where he tied him to one of the kitchen chairs. He put another chair opposite the unconscious man as he sat down and clasped his hands while he waited. As he waited, he began to notice that his mind wandered. He wondered how Valkyrie had it.

Was she unharmed? Where was she at the moment? Far away or near? Had the kidnapper shown their face too her? Had he or she say anything about their plan?

 _So many questions, but so few answers_... he thought to himself and was surprised to hear the deep sigh that escaped his nonexistent throat. When did he last worry about someone in this way? Not for hundreds of years, that was for sure. The last time must have been when Serpine...

Skulduggery clenched his fists hard and found himself clenching his jaws. Despite having his revenge 13 years ago, the idea of what Serpine had made towards him and his family got him to relive some of all the anger he had felt that led him into the road that made him turn into Lord Vile.

" _NO!_ " He roared and embezzled all the thoughts of anger, revenge and bloodshed to that part deep inside of him that consisted of all his negative feelings. "I will _not_ let these feelings take over me when I as least need them. I'm stronger than this. I'm _better_ than this."

 _It's just what you think, Skeleton Detective..._ whispered a voice from the depths of himself.

Skulduggery flinched and stood up in an unsuccessful attempt to make the voice disappear. He knew it was not that easy, as the voice was a part of him. All he could do was ignore it and hope it would give up. Unfortunately, it was in a really talkative mood today...

 _Why don't you just confess it for yourself, detective? You miss the power I give you. Let me come out and I'll probably get this guy to tell you_ everything _he knows for you. You are fully aware that the longer the time goes without you getting information, the more chance it is that Valkyrie gets tortured or at worst..._

"Do not say it", Skulduggery growled-whispered.

 _Killed._

Skulduggery shouted in rage and rolled over the chair he just had sat down on. He wanted to kill someone, or at least seriously hurt someone. He turned to the unconscious man in the second chair and gave him such a powerful bitch slap that the man fell down on the floor. This in turn caused the man to wake up with a jerk. It took a while for him to focus, but when he got his eyes on Skulduggery, his countenance darkened and the hate could once again be seen in them.

"The Famous Skeleton Detective. I'll admit it's a glory, even if it receives. I've heard a lot about you, even things that I know you want to keep secret. For example, I know what you did during the war. _On both sides._ " The man's voice was hoarse with an accent that Skulduggery could not place at first, but after a while he got it.

The man was German.

"If you try to scare me, you're doing a bad job."

The man laughed mockingly. "If you think that was my intention, you think wrong. I'm just a bodyguard and a messenger. My only tasks is to protect my master and give you a message."

"And what's the message?" asked Skulduggery with such a cold voice that a shadow of fear went across the man's face.

The man swallowed as if he had to lubricate his throat before he could speak again. "How much you try, you'll never be able to find your partner and my master. My master is really good at hiding. My master also wants you to know that this is revenge for what you did during the war."

Skulduggery put his arms crossed over his chest and seemed to think. He had his suspicions about who it might be at the same moment Valkyrie was taken from him, but it was not until the German man saying that about revenge and war that he understood that his suspicions were right.

"Elizabeth Gregory... I thought she had been dead for a long time, but I should have known better. She has always been tenacious and hard to kill."

The German smiled against Skulduggery. "So you have finally remembered now? Believe me, my master has told me a lot about how you were when you fought on Mevolent's side in the war. How you were a sight to behold where you went. How everyone was afraid of you since you were a commander who by own will volunteered into the fighting and did not hesitate to kill both male and female magicians as well as mortals. I wish I had seen it with my own eyes... It must have been a sight for the gods..."

Skulduggery said nothing for a long time. He was silent for so long that the German thought he had fell asleep when Skulduggery lifted his head. Even though he had no eyes, muscles or skin that could show him Skulduggery's mood, the German man got the impression that Skulduggery was angry, even furious.

"You say that? So if I'd let out Vile here and now would you be happy? Would you have one of your highest wishes fulfilled?"

The man nodded, dared not do anything else for fear of angering Skulduggery even more. He had heard of the detective's anger and it was something he did not want to hit him if he could avoid it.

Shadows began to sip out from Skulduggery's suit and it did not take many seconds before he was surrounded by them. The shadows changed shape and soon became the blackest armour that the man had ever seen. It was no longer possible to discern the slightest trace of the detective, but the one that now standing before him was none other than _Lord Vile_.

Vile said nothing but just looked at him through the gap in the helmet. The feeling of seeing the mighty Vile standing in front of him was something he could not imagine even in his wildest imaginations. If he had not been stuck in the chair he would have bowed. Instead, he had to do the second best: bend down his head in a respected nod.

When he looked up again, Vile had moved. He stood right in front of him. Their faces were no more than a couple of centimeters apart. Sweat pearls began to form in his forehead and at first he could not understand where they came from. This was what he had been waiting for his whole life: seeing Lord Vile in the flesh. So why did he suddenly become so nervous? He should feel happy, no, _blessed_ to have experienced what many others did not receive! And that's when he understood.

 _He was scared._

As if Vile could read his thoughts, he made a noise that could be a laugh, but he was not sure, since the armour dampened the sound. Before he had time to think more about it, he felt a horrible pain in his stomach and when he looked down, Vile had stabbed him with one of his shadows. It had drilled a bit into his midriff and the pain was so huge that he could not even scream. He felt how hot blood poured out of the wound and ran down his legs. His body was pierced by spasms and he was close to falling into the floor, but thanks to Vile's shadow he remained upright.

" _Are you happy now?_ " Vile asked, leaning so close that the German man's nose and Vile's helmet touched each other. " _I hope so, since all you have done is make me angry. As Elizabeth probably already have told you, nobody escaped me_ alive _. The only thing I live for is to see other people suffer, preferably in the most horrendous ways. Best is when_ I am _the one who is able to distribute that suffering._ "

Vile twisted the shadow and now the man could _finally_ scream. Vile laughed again while the blood ran out of the deep wound and the German man understood that he was dying. He noticed that the insight did not scare him, but on the contrary he welcomed its cold arms. The only thing he was sad about was that he would not be able to see his master torment the Skeleton detective. He could have paid, in principle, anything to see his facial expression when he would see what condition his partner will be in after his master is done with her.

"You will... regret... that you..." the man coughed blood in his already soiled knee before he could continue. "that you abandoned Vile and... became your old self again... When you see... what happened to your partner... you will wish you... had remained as Vile and never... met her..."

Vile growled and let his shadows wrap around the man. One of them cut off the rope that had tied the man to the chair and before he fell down on the floor, the shadows that had wrapped around the man grabbed him and lifted him up in the air above Vile. Once there, Vile tilted his head and watched the man for a few seconds before he hissed " _Your master will pay for what she has done towards me and my partner. Unfortunately, you will not be there to witness it._ "

These were the last words that the German man heard before he was teared to pieces from Vile's shadows.

Everything became deadly silent. No sound seemed to penetrate the bubble that was Vile. He could not hear anything, not even the everyday sounds like the noise from the fridge, the cracking of the house or the noise of cars that occasionally drove out on the way. It was as if Vile had lost his ability to hear.

After a while, after standing completely motionless and looking at the point where the German man had got teared to pieces, Vile was penetrated with such a deep shiver that he had to take a step back. A moan escaped him before his shadows began to retreat into his armour. It did not take long before the armour disappeared completely and Vile disappeared deep into Skulduggery where he waited until next time when Skulduggery would call for him.

 _That Vile knew he would do. He always did…_

Skulduggery put his hand on the sink and used it as a support to avoid falling to the floor. He felt drained of energy and it took a second for him to focus and find out where he was. As he looked up, he saw the remains of the German man that lay scattered across the table, the chairs, the floor and on the kitchen window, he froze before he flung himself out of there. He felt nauseous and would probably have vomit if he had been human. Instead, he sat down in one of the sofas in the living room and put his hands in his face.

What had he done? No, correction: what had _Vile_ done? He remembered that he had become angry and wanted to hurt someone, but did he really want to _murder_ the German man? So in retrospect, he understood that he could have received important information if he had only pushed the man enough. Instead, he had let Vile come out and do what Vile did best:

 _Mutilate._

All he could do now was to hope for two things: that he found evidence of where Elizabeth had taken Valkyrie in the area around his house or that China had some information about her that could be useful.

"I will never forgive myself if the only thing that stood in the way of finding Valkyrie was my weakness regarding Vile and the overly enticing powers he possesses", muttered Skulduggery for himself and got out of the couch.

He picked up his phone and dialed a number. While waiting for a response, he went back into the kitchen and inspected the destruction Vile had accomplished. "China, I'll be quick. Valkyrie has been kidnapped by a necromancer named Elizabeth Gregory. I want you to provide all the information you can about her. … Thanks. Oh, one more thing. Can you ask a cleaner to get over here? I was visited by Elizabeth's bodyguard and things... got out of hand."

Skulduggery hung up and was just about to put the phone back in the pants pocket when it ringed. On the display it stood "Valkyrie". At the same time as he answered and heard Valkyrie's pained voice, which she tried to disguise but since he had known her for such a long time he could hear it without difficulty, he took a firmer grip of the phone.

"Skulduggery..." Valkyrie gasped for breath in a painful breath before she continued "She has me. Elizabeth Gregory has me... and she will not stop until you... until you come here and..."

It went quiet. "Valkyrie, are you still there? Answer me! Valkyrie?!"

Skulduggery heard how someone else took the phone from Valkyrie and soon he had Elizabeth's voice next to his nonexistent ear. "She's still here. Unfortunately, she is a little too weak right now to speak. If you would like to meet her again, you only need to _find me, Skulduggery..._ "


	3. Captivity

Valkyrie had to muster all her remaining strength to have enough strenght to listen to what Elizabeth Gregory said to Skulduggery. She knew she had been extremely fortunate that had managed to get a hold on her phone and call Skulduggery before her strenght left her. She did not know why Elizabeth had not taken her phone from her as soon as she had arrived at her hideaway, but Valkyrie now suspected it was because she wanted to be given a chance to taunt Skulduggery.

Elizabeth wanted Skulduggery to hear how weak she was and understand that she would be suffering terrible mischief as long as she was Elizabeth's prisoner.

Elizabeth hung up and turned to Valkyrie. In her face, Valkyrie could see a smile so big that Valkyrie thought Elizabeth would eat herself. "It is now the fun begins, Valkyrie. Now that Skulduggery knows for sure that I am the one holding you captive, he will do everything in his power to find us. He is also probably aware that I will take good care of you during your stay here..."

The laughter that came out of Elizabeth's throat caused Valkyrie to shiver, which in turn caused her to moan low of pain from the wounds she had received from Elizabeth's shadows.

When she had regained consciousness, she had laid bound and wearing only underwear on a cold stone floor. The first thing she saw was her clothes that lay neatly folded next to her, as if her kidnapper thought it was fun to tease her. Something that Valkyrie had not taken in a good way. She hated when people made fun of her.

At the same time as she got up, a door had opened and emitted enough light to see that she was in a room that was not much bigger than a bathroom. Inside there was a toilet, a sink and a mattress. A small window emitted a dim light that made her see good enough to move around the room without having to crash into the walls, but not more than that.

In the doorway, the shadow that had kidnapped her had stood. It had looked at her with an evil smirk on its face. When she had asked who the shadow was and what it wanted her, it had laughed and entered the room where it then stood before her. She had tried to get up and succeeded after some attempts. She did not like feeling inferior.

"Welcome, Valkyrie Cain. I understand you're feeling uncomfortable right now, but I'll change that soon. I also understand that you want to know what you are doing here and I'll tell you. I suppose you think this has to do with Darquesse? That I'm here to get some revenge for what she did several years ago?"

Valkyrie had nodded and managed to get up in a position that was not too uncomfortable.

"Then maybe it will relieve you when I say it's not about you this time? I'm actually looking for Skulduggery. He did something intolerable to me hundreds of years ago, that I've been waiting a long time to avenge. As you probably already know, he is quite good at pushing the right buttons to erect people to the point that they do not see any way other than trying to kill him or injure him in other ways."

Valkyrie had chosen not to answer since she was unsure where her kidnapper were going with her claims. She had not yet realized what she was doing there and why it was so important for Elizabeth to have just _her_ by her side, just to get at Skulduggery.

Elizabeth had let the shadows pull away from her and Valkyrie had seen what she looked like. She had long blond hair falling down in curls around her round face and eyes as green as emeralds. She carried a simple black dress that concealed everything except her throat and Valkyrie quickly understood that Elizabeth's shadow powers were in her dress. She could see how the shadows wrapped it and made it wave in a way that caused Valkyrie to feel sick if she looked too long at it.

"What do you want from me? I have not done anything to you. If you now want your revenge on Skulduggery, why did you not kidnapp him instead? I do not think you seem particularly smart. I mean, if it had been me, I would not go for the partner to attract my real target but instead incapacitate the partner to then pursue to take on my target", said Valkyrie.

Elizabeth had laughed and leaned towards Valkyrie. "Unlike you who choose the easiest way out, I like challenges. What is the point of taking revenge if it ends too fast? Revenge is something you want to enjoy, Valkyrie. It's something you strive for under a long time and, when it is time, should be fully enjoyed. Unfortunately, you're too young to understand, I'm afraid."

Shadows had wandered around them both and before Valkyrie had reacted, a majority of them had cut deep, but not life-threatening, wounds on her arms, legs, belly and back. The pain that went through her made her scream and she fell down with a hard thump on the stone floor. Tears were formed in her eyes, but she did not let them come out. She would not cry in front of this woman!

Elizabeth licked her lips all the while blood continued flow from Valkyries wounds. She enjoyed watching other people suffering, Valkyrie understood that from her facial expression to judge. This gave her one more reason not to cry. She did not want to give her kidnapper satisfaction if she could prevent it.

Soon she had again screamed with pain when more shadows joined the first and continued to cut in her unprotected body. If she had only been wearing her armored clothes and not been bound, she would have kicked the shit out of Elizabeth and then let the Cleavers take care of her _after_ Skulduggery had some own time with her.

"You will... regret this... Wait until... I'm coming... out of these ropes... Then I'll... kick your ass, Elizabeth!" Valkyrie had managed to get out between the waves of pain that passed through her.

"Go ahead and imagine that, little girl. The more hope you've got the more pain I can cause you before you break down." Elizabeth had given Valkyrie another evil smirk before withdrawing her shadows and walked out of the room.

 _Leaving Valkyrie left behind with her pains and thoughts of what would occur in the future._

As soon as the door closed behind Elizabeth and Valkyrie managed to collect enough energy, she had began to crawl towards her clothes. The pain in her fresh wounds made her moan, but she still continued to crawl stubbornly. She was not going to make it easy for Elizabeth. She would show her that she wasn't a weakling and why she had got a reputation about being a person you did not mess with.

In the moment she reached her clothes, she had to rest for a few seconds when the pain in her wound made her feel dizzy. When the worst dizziness had passed, she turned her back on her clothes and began to fumble her hands over her pockets until she felt the contour of her phone. Slowly but surely she had managed to pull it out of the pants pocket.

She now had managed to get her phone out, but how would she do to call Skulduggery and tell him what had happened? She remained sitting for a while while she was trying to find a solution to her problem. In the end she had realized that if she turned her head and looked back on the phone she could use her fingers to find Skulduggery's number and dial it.

At the same time as the signals ringed, she lay down beside the phone and managed to nail it between her shoulder and her ear. When she heard Skulduggery answer, she was close to crying out of relief.

"Valkyrie, how are you? Where are you?"

"Skulduggery... She has me. Elizabeth Gregory has me... and she will not stop until you... until you come here and..."

Valkyrie had interrupted herself when a dizziness attack hit her and just as she would continue she had heard how the door of her prison was opened. Before she realized what had happened, a shadow had grabbed her phone and given it to Elizabeth where she stood in the doorway. She had heard how Skulduggery had called for her and had made a failed attempt to crawl to the phone to tell him she was okay, that she was not dead when Elizabeth's voice interrupted her in her attempt.

"She's still here. Unfortunately, she is a little too weak right now to speak. If you would like to meet her again, you only need to _find me, Skulduggery..._ " Elizabeth had said before she had hung up and given Valkyrie that smile...

Valkyrie was raised from her thoughts by Elizabeth who grabbed her arm and lifted her up as easily as if she had been a rag doll. She tried to resist, but noticed that she was too weak to even lift her second arm, which Elizabeth did not hold. She even had difficulty keeping her eyes open. The only thing she wanted to do right now was to close her eyes and get lost in a dreamless sleep where she could get back some of her strength that she had lost at the same moment Elizabeth's shadows had began to cut into her.

A hard blow caused her head to flip to the side and caused a lot of her tiredness to disappear as if by magic. She managed to refocus her gaze and it landed on Elizabeth's eyes. In them she could see her hatred towards Skulduggery for what he had done to her hundreds of years ago but also the happiness Elizabeth felt every time she hurt her in some way.

 _Elizabeth Gregory was a psychopath who loved to hurt others._

"Even though I appreciate that you called Skulduggery so that I could get a chance of teasing a little with him, it does not change that you were trying to get behind my back. Is it something I do not tolerate that my prisoners do, it's just going behind my back. I hope you understand, Valkyrie?"

Instead of answering, Valkyrie spitted Elizabeth in the face.

"How dare you?!" Elizabeth shouted and threw Valkyrie into the wall above the mattress. In the same moment as her bruised body fell down on to the mattress, Valkyrie curled up in a fetal position. "How dare you spit me in the face?! Do you know who you are dealing with? Do you know who I am?! I could kill you in so many ways right now, Valkyrie Cain. You'd probably be surprised if you knew how many. It's good for you that I still need you, otherwise all that would remain of you would have been a big bloody pool of blood."

Valkyrie did not answer. She was too busy not to scream with pain.

"If you think you are in pain now, you have got a lot more pain to look forward to in the future. When Skulduggery is finally able to figure out where you are, there will not be much left of you. You will be like a wandering corpse. You will have forgotten who you are and what you have done in the last 13 years of your life." Elizabeth went to Valkyrie and lifted her head up so she could look her in the eyes. "Did you understand what I just told you?"

Valkyrie nodded with horror shining out of her eyes. She knew that what Elizabeth was saying was the truth. She could see it in her eyes.

"Good girl." Elizabeth let go of Valkyries chin and got up. Again she let the shadows swallow her so that she once again became the shadow that Valkyrie and Skulduggery had seen her as when Elizabeth caught her.

Without a word to goodbye, Elizabeth disappeared and the door was closed with a creaking sound. Valkyrie was left in a nearly dark room with only herself and her pain as company. Now that Elizabeth was gone, she could finally allow the tears to come. They ran down her face in a violent stream and landed silently on the bloody stone floor below her.

* * *

 **Skulduggery's P.O.W.**

Skulduggery went back and forth in his house while he was waiting for... Yes, what? To hear Valkyrie's plagued voice again, only to confirm that she was still alive? Elizabeth's scornful voice in his ear that challenged him to find her before she did something that could not be undone against Valkyrie?

He was interrupted in his thoughts from the sound of a car approaching. He realized that it was the cleaner that came to clear out the mess that Vile had made in the kitchen. "Finally... It took time", muttered Skulduggery and went out to meet the person.

The moment he opened the front door and went outside, a white van was parking next to the Bentley. Out of the car came a dark-haired middle aged man with blue eyes dressed in a white suit similar to that used by forensic technicians. The man nodded to Skulduggery and entered the house without a word. Skulduggery came to wonder how the man would react when he saw the mess in there, but soon realized that the man was probably used to this and that at this time.

Instead of following the man into the house, Skulduggery went to the trees that lay behind his house to continue his search for clues. He stood for a while and only listened to the sounds of nature that became weaker and weaker the darker it became. He knew it would be really dark in just half an hour, which did not give him much time to search for tracks that Elizabeth or her bodyguard could have left behind.

He began his search for clues at the foot of the tree that the bodyguard had jumped down from and then worked his way deeper into the trees. When he reached the end of the tree dune it had become so dark that he was forced to light a fireball to be able to see anything at all.

After a few more minutes of searching, he had to admit himself defeated. Elizabeth had been really smart and had not leave anything behind her that could tie her to a place or a person which could eventually lead him to her. Nor her bodyguard had made any mistakes, which allowed Skulduggery to suspect that Elizabeth had been training him hard.

He returned to the house and saw that the cleaner had leaved. He did not have to go inside the house to know that the job was done and that no trace of what had happened remained. The cleaners always did a good job and unless you had been there and saw the devastation they had cleaned up, you could never believe that something terrible had occurred.

Skulduggery decided to take a car trip to see if China had managed to get any information on Elizabeth. He sat in the car and had just started it when a beeping sound from his phone was heard. He picked it up and saw that he had received a message containing an audio file. The sender was from Valkyrie's phone. He opened the file and shrugged when he heard Valkyrie screaming with pain and fear while the sound of skin that got cut up could be heard in the background. It all ended with Elizabeth who laughed.

He held the phone convulsively and did not let it go until a cracking sound was heard. He relaxed his grip and noticed that he was holding his breath. Even though he did not have to breathe, he still released a deep breath and put his hands in his face while leaning his arms on the steering wheel.

For the first time in a long time, Skulduggery felt powerless. He did not know what he would do. To hear Valkyrie scream that way while knowing what she was going through, since he had done similar things to others as Lord Vile, got his non-existent heart to burst. Hearing his partner shout straight out in total pain and horror was something that no one would have to hear...

Skulduggery hit his fist in the steering wheel in frustration and shrugged when he got the car horn to honk. He looked around as if he was worried that someone would wonder what he was doing. If he had had Valkyrie next to him, she would have laughed at his reaction and said something that was typical of her just to get on his nerves.

A sound that could be likened to a sob escaped Skulduggery, but as he had no eyes that could produce tears, this was the closest he came to crying. Before he had made yet another such a sound, his phone beeped again. This time he had received an MMS. He hesitated for a moment since he was afraid of what he would see if he opened the message. Once he got the courage and opened it, he emitted a sound similar to a blend of a moan and a sob.

The picture showed Valkyrie lying on a mattress with fresh cuts all over her body and a stone floor drenched with her own blood...


	4. Pain

Skulduggery could not stop staring at the picture. He wanted to look away, but it was as if a magnetic force pulled his eye cavities to the phone screen. He found himself beginning to analyze the picture piece by piece to see if he could figure out where Valkyrie was. The detective in him never missed an opportunity to try to figure out a way to solve a dilemma.

The picture was blurred and did not show much of the room Valkyrie was in. She was clearly the center of the picture and what was behind and below her was just there as a filler. Skulduggery could nevertheless see that Valkyrie had a mattress to sleep on and that she was in a room with stone floors and stone walls. Judging by the light there was at least one small window, maybe two, which let in a dim light.

More than that he could not figure out, but it was at least a beginning.

"Elizabeth has sent these things to me for a reason. She wants to get me out of balance and tease me, so much I know. I also have the feeling that this picture is a clue to figure out where she is. She wants me to find her, but not _before_ she has had her little fun with Valkyrie..."

Skulduggery took a last look at the picture before putting the phone back in his pocket. He put the car in reverse and backed on to the road before turning the Bentley and drove to the Sanctuary. The car journey there gave him time to gather and put away all thoughts on Valkyrie and her pain far behind in his consciousness. He knew he could pick it up again at a later time when he needed it.

" _If_ I will need it", he said to himself while the road curled in front of his eyes.

The only thing that was heard was the sound of the Bentley's engine and the tires that spun on the road. Skulduggery turned on the car stereo in an attempt to get rid of how quiet it was and how lonely he felt. Ever since he got to know Valkyrie 13 years ago, there had not been a lot of occasions he had spent alone in the car, except for the short trips between his house and the place he would pick up her at as well as in the years she had been gone to find herself and understand her new powers.

A jazz song came on the radio. Skulduggery turned his head and looked at the passenger seat for a few seconds before he understood what he was doing. He had waited for Valkyrie to comment on his choice of song, since she _loved_ to make fun of him and his music taste.

When he thought about it, there was not much she did _not_ make fun of him about.

God, how he missed her and it had not even been more than a couple of hours since she had disappeared! The missing was not easier when he knew that she was in a place where she was treated badly by a necromancer who wanted revenge on him for things he had done hundreds of years ago. If he could only turn back the time! Then he could have protected Valkyrie better and then she would not have had to withstand the torture Elizabeth exposed her to and would continue with until she either let Valkyrie go or killed her...

Skulduggery clenched his fists hard around the wheel and felt how a wrath towards Elizabeth was built within him. He should have checked once more that she was really dead that time several hundred years ago... He had made a big mistake then and it had now come back to bite him in the ass. _Big time._

 _Let me help. I'm a necromancer and can find Elizabeth in no time. All magic leaves traces, right? Necromancy is a kind of magic, which means I can see it but not you._

Skulduggery clenched his fists harder around the steering wheel and ignored Vile. He knew that Vile was right, but he did not want to let him out unless he absolutely had _no other choice_. Skulduggery knew that if he let Vile come back out again after such a short time span there would be a risk that he would be too weak to resist him. If he could not resist Vile, there was yet another risk, and that was that Vile could hurt Valkyrie on such a plan that he would never get her back, but she would be mad from the pain that Vile would inflict on her.

An evil laugh filled Skulduggery's head. He realized that Vile tried to psyche him and make him lose his concentration so Vile could get a chance to slip out. Skulduggery was not, however, going to let him take over that easily. By now, Skulduggery had learned most of Vile's tricks since they had shared the same body for several years.

"You can always try..." muttered Skulduggery and swung into the Sanctuary's garage where he parked on his place.

He got out of the car and went to the elevators just as they opened and China came out with two Cleavers, one on each side. She wore a blue pantsuit that fit tight against her perfect body and highlighted her blue eyes. She walked up to Skulduggery with a serious expression in her face. "Any new leads?"

Skulduggery shook his head. "Not yet. Her bodyguard did not want to reveal anything and I have not managed to find any traces of her. All I have received is some messages that she sent through Valkyrie's phone."

"Can I see?"

Skulduggery handed over the phone without a word and braced himself for what he knew would come in the next few seconds. Nevertheless, he still winched when Valkyrie's scream echoed around the garage walls. He could see that even China thought it was hard even though she was doing well hiding it. When the last of Valkyrie's scream disappeared China scowled and Skulduggery understood that she had seen the picture.

She looked up at him with anger radiating from her eyes. "Who is this woman? Why does she punish you this way, Skulduggery?"

"Revenge, what else?"

China laughed mirthless. "Of course. Is there someone out there you have _not_ upset in any way?"

Skulduggery shrugged his shoulders. "What should I say? People have difficulty understanding my humor."

A shadow of a smile spread on China's lips before she turned around and went back to the elevator. Skulduggery followed and stood next to China before the elevator doors shut. As the elevator lifted upwards, not a single word was said, which suited Skulduggery excellent. He was not in a talkative mood and would _definitely not_ hear China feel sorry about his and Valkyrie's situation.

The elevator stopped and they stepped out. Without still saying nothing, China led Skulduggery to her office. Once there she sat down on a chair and gave a deep sigh. "Oh, Skulduggery. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get much information about Elizabeth other than she is a Necromancer, fought on Mevolent's side during the war and that she is believed to be dead."

"All of that I already know."

China's perfect eyebrows went up and she looked surprised at him. "How can you...?" she began, but was interrupted.

"We encountered each other during the war. She was not a nice woman then and does not seem to have changed even though it has been hundreds of years, despite having had plenty of time to think about her choices and what she did. She just wants what Ravel wanted: that we mages control the mortals. That's why she fought on Mevolent's side and that's why she hates me so much. I took her dream away from her."

It got deadly quiet in the room. China stared at Skulduggery and he could see how the thoughts spinned around in her head. He put his arms crossed over his chest and leaned back against the wall, as if what he just had said was the most normal thing in the world to say.

"So what you _really_ say is that Valkyrie has been kidnapped by Elizabeth Gregory so she can access you without having to contact you personally. Smart, it must be acknowledged. What I do not understand, however, is why she has been waiting _this_ long for revenge? She would as well have been able to attack Ghastly or any of your other friends long before Valkyrie entered the picture."

Skulduggery shook his head. "No, she could not. I suspect that she first needed a long time to recover from her injuries and then even longer to regain her strength. Remember China that a necromancer needs to channel their powers into an object not to getting mad by their own powers.

I have a strong suspicion that when Elizabeth got back her strength she needed to find a place to hide and then a plan for her next move: How she could get her revenge on me because I let her lose her dream. I also think that she quickly understood that she could not access me through my closest acquaintances since they were members of 'The Dead Men'. As you know, we were not that easy to overpower during our glory days and even after the war."

"I understand. Since Valkyrie is still young and does not have your experience, she was a simpler target. I suppose Elizabeth also have found out what you two have been going through together since day one and heard about everyone else who have tried to get to you through Valkyrie." China closed her eyes and sighed tiredly before she again looked up at Skulduggery. "I hate having to say this Skulduggery, but Valkyrie is your Achilles heel."

Skulduggery stretched to his full length and his body language told China that he was angry. She had known in advance that her words would have just that reaction, but had chosen to say them anyway. Skulduggery needed to hear someone say this and she knew she was one of the few who could tell the truth without having to worry about getting into too much trouble.

"Do not dare, China." Skulduggery's voice was cold. "You if anyone should know that what I and Valkyrie have is something special. If you so much as suggest that Valkyrie would in any way be a burden to me, I will not hesitate to hurt you, even if you are a Grand Mage."

China laughed as coldly and gave Skulduggery a smile. "So typical of you, Skulduggery. You've always had a hard time listening to the truth."

"If I were you, I would choose my next words with care, China. Remember, the only reason I have not hurt you is because you're a Grand Mage. It hurts me to say this, but I prefer that you remain in your place since you have succeeded in the hard task of creating something that can be resembled peace."

"Thanks for the praise, Skulduggery, even though I have to, in the power of the Grand Mage, warn you to threaten me again. All I have to do is wave my finger and these nice Cleavers will arrest you." China continued to smile as she let her hand swing back to the Cleavers standing behind her.

Skulduggery exclaimed a sound that sounded like a snort and turned around to go. "I'm going to forget that this conversation has ever taken place. Thank you for your information, but I can handle this myself from now on."

" _As usual_ , in other words."

Skulduggery did not answer. Instead, he went out of the room with determined steps. He did not stop until he got into the elevator and the doors were closed in front of him. Once in there he drew a deep breath while he clenched and opened his hands a few times. When he felt that the worst anger had ran off him, he got out of the elevator and sat down in the Bentley. He started it and went out of the garage, away from the Sanctuary.

He did not think about where he was going, but let the car roll along the road. The thoughts went around inside his skull and he wondered if China's words could be true to some extent. Whenever something happened to Valkyrie, he reacted strongly and was always careful to ensure that she did not get hurt if he could avoid it.

 _If something happened to her, he was the first to respond and who did everything in his power to help her._

He continued to drive for a few more minutes during silence and next time when he became aware of his surroundings he found himself in Haggard. More specifically, outside of Valkyrie's parents' house. He drove slowly past the house and thought he saw a glimpse of Valkyrie's little sister Alice and her father Desmond. They were up in what looked like a card game where Desmond seemed to be on the losing side.

Skulduggery smiled at the sight and wondered when Valkyrie had talked to her parents and little sister last. He had encouraged her to reconnect with them after returning from her five-year long break from everything magical. He did not want her to lose time spending time with her family as they would not be there forever.

Valkyrie would nevertheless live much longer than her parents and little sister.

He threw a final look at Desmond and Alice before turning the car around. He decided to go home and think through his next move. Perhaps he could use the transmitter in Valkyrie's phone to see where her phone was. Skulduggery knew there was a chance that Elizabeth had threw the phone away or put it in a place other than where she held Valkyrie prisoned, but still thought it was worth a try.

Skulduggery noticed that he once again began to think of what China had said. Valkyrie was _not_ a burden, rather an asset. She had more than once saved him from death or fates which could be considered worse and, in turn, he had helped and rescued her when she needed it.

They were a team and they stood up for each other.

"The only reason my enemies use Valkyrie as a bait is because they know it's harder to overpower me because all I'm living for is to fight. This is what I was born to, _this_ is what's my destiny."

As if Elizabeth could read his thoughts, she materialized next to him in the passenger seat.

Skulduggery slammed the brakes and drew his revolver which he directed to Elizabeth's head. His finger was against the trigger and all he had to do to kill her once and for all was to apply a small pressure with his finger.

Elizabeth turned to him with a large smile on her face. "Hi, Skulduggery. Nice seeing you again. How have you been doing close to the 300 years that has passed since we last saw each other?"

Skulduggery did not answer but just looked at Elizabeth with his black eye cavities. His entire body language radiated anger and Elizabeth knew that it would not take much for Skulduggery to get off. Nevertheless, she continued to smile and let one of her shadows pass over a phone to Skulduggery.

"I thought you might want to see how Valkyrie is doing? You must be really worried about her by now. Especially considering my messages..." Elizabeth laughed before she continued "Here, another gift to you. If you want to talk to Valkyrie, you can use her phone. I have given her a new phone that can not be traced. I do not want you to find us, not _yet_."

"You are very calm for someone who has a gun aimed at her. What makes you think I will not pull the trigger and get it all over with once and for all? It would be a pure pleasure..."

Elizabeth laughed again. "Because if you kill me you will never find out where Valkyrie is. If you do not know where she is, you can not save her."

Skulduggery took a harder grip on the revolver and pushed it against Elizabeth's forehead. "If you tell me where she is, _maybe_ I'll let you go. I might be satisfied just to put you in prison where I can greet you daily and see how you fade away more and more for each passing day."

Elizabeth smiled and tilted her head. Skulduggery thought he understood why she did it. She tried to resemble Vile, hoping to psyche him further. "I would not think so, Skulduggery. I enjoy this too much to want to refrain. In addition, I love my life as it is right now. Thanks to you, I have developed and become stronger. See my little game as my way of repaying the service you made me 300 years ago."

Before Skulduggery had time to respond Elizabeth shadow-walked and left him alone with his revolver in one hand and Valkyrie's phone in the other, and with a fury that would not be stilled until he had her blood on his hands...


	5. Answers

**Another update, this quick?! Well, let's just say I was in a writing mood ;) In case you wonder why I chose to change Skulduggery in this chapter, it's because I thought it would be nice to see him break down for once. I think that Derek Landy should show more of Skulduggery's "soft side" in the books, since I am sure he can be soft when he wants to :)**

* * *

It had now been five days. Five days of torture, insomnia, depression and rivers of tears. Five days of moans and screams of pain as well as begging. Five days of hope to be saved and taken away from this hell...

Valkyrie caught herself staring up at the ceiling where she lay on the blood soaked mattress in the room that was her prison. She had no idea how long she had been laying there and stared. Over the past two days she had disappeared into herself and woke up far later without knowing how much time had passed or what had happened while she had been gone.

"I am getting crazy, aren't I?" she asked herself lowly. "I am about to become a ghost version of myself. _If_ I get out of this nightmare, nobody is going to recognize me. I will look like my usual self, walk like my usual self and talk like my usual self but I will do it without any feelings."

The door to her prison cell was opened and in stepped Elizabeth with a sea of shadows surrounding her. For the sake of unusualness, she had no smile in her face but instead looked worried. Valkyrie wondered what could have made Elizabeth change mood, but dared not ask. She had been able to rest last night and hoped she would get to rest for the rest of the day as well.

Elizabeth went to Valkyrie and kneeled in front of her. She still said nothing, but just looked at Valkyrie with a thoughtful look as if she was a phenomenon that Elizabeth tried to understand.

A shadow loosened from the others and stretched away a strand of hair from her face. The gesture was so unexpected that Valkyrie stared with big eyes on Elizabeth. She could not stop herself, but heard how she asked "Why did you do that?"

"I'm trying to find out what Skulduggery sees in you, little girl. It is obvious that he cares for you very much, even with Skulduggery's measurements. He has never been such a person who shows his feelings openly, but as soon as you are near him or is mentioned, his body language changes. I never think I've seen Skulduggery as happy as he is when he has you by his side.

You have awakened something within him, as I think nobody else could have done. You complement him. When I see you two together, it's like seeing two lost souls that have finally found each other after years of separation. I think you are the person he has been waiting for all his life. The person who can help him to atone for all the horrible crimes he has commited during the 400+ years he has lived."

Valkyrie became speechless. Never before had Elizabeth said so much to her at one and the same time. For the most part, she had tortured Valkyrie in silence, with some single words about how much she liked to hear her screaming or how much she liked hurting her or how she would look like after she was done with her.

Never before had she talked about her and Skulduggery's relation or some more details about why she had kidnapped Valkyrie.

"These reasons are, of course, one of the reasons why I've kidnapped you. I want to see Skulduggery suffer and give back some of the pain that he caused me when he abandoned Lord Vile and recovered himself. If he had not found himself, we could have controlled the mortals by now! We could have done what we wanted when we wanted it! We could have lived in freedom to exert our magic how we wanted!" Elizabeth stared straight ahead and in her eyes, Valkyrie could see the hatred she felt against Skulduggery because he had taken away from her a future where she could control and cause so much pain she could wish for.

Valkyrie shivered and thought back on all the pain she had needed to endure during her stay here. No wonder Elizabeth tortured her with such intensity if she felt such a strong hatred towards Skulduggery. Valkyrie suspected Elizabeth knew that the chance was extremely small that she could catch Skulduggery and torture him herself, which was why she spent so much time on Valkyrie.

As if she could read her thoughts, Elizabeth turned to her with a crazy smile on her face. Now Valkyrie recognized her. Now she was the old ordinary Elizabeth who loved to exert pain against others. She leaned so close to Valkyrie that their noses touched each other and if Valkyrie had not been so jaded from all the torture she would probably had withdrawn from the crazy look Elizabeth gave her.

As it was now, all that happened was that Valkyrie felt how a shiver was crawling up along her spine.

"You understand what I'm talking about, don't you, Valkyrie? I have seen how you behave when you are with him. I have seen how close you are to him, the gazes you give him and the way you move when he is with you. You are totally filled with admiration to Skulduggery and he with you."

"I do not know what you..."

Elizabeth laughed and shook her head. "Oh, Valkyrie... You sure do, you just do not want to admit it to yourself since you're afraid of how Skulduggery would react if he found out. You are afraid he will not feel the same for you and that nothing would ever be the same between you two if your feelings are not answered. You're afraid he'll abandon you if he finds out the truth, right?"

Valkyrie did not answer. She just wanted to crawl into a small ball and disappear into herself. God what she wished that all this could just be a horrible nightmare that she would soon wake up from!

The shadows came from nowhere and wrapped around her throat. She tried in vain to get some air into her lungs, but couldn't. Panic went through her and she clawed at the shadows in a futile attempt to remove them from her throat. Black dots began to dance in front of her eyes and she made some choked sounds that made Elizabeth laugh again. She released her grip a bit and Valkyrie drew air into her lungs before she felt how Elizabeth lifted her up in the air so she hung above Elizabeth.

More shadows came and grabbed her arms and legs. She could not move at all and Elizabeth stood up so she could see Valkyrie in the eyes. She leaned her head the same way as Skulduggery, and also Lord Vile, used to do. She let her shadows stroke along Valkyrie's lingerie and before Valkyrie had time to react, Elizabeth's shadows had teared them apart.

She now hung totally naked in front of Elizabeth.

"Oh, you are even more beautiful than I thought. No wonder Skulduggery likes you so much! I am surprised that he has not made any advances to you yet. He's really missing out on something... I think I'll tell him that next time I see him, or what do you think?"

"Please do not do this..." Valkyrie felt how tears of embarrassment, shame and fear wanted to get out, but she kept them back.

Elizabeth did not answer but let one of her shadows pick up the phone as she had replaced with Valkyrie's and backed a few steps. She was just thinking about taking a picture when Valkyrie bent down her head. She did not want Skulduggery to see the tears that she desperately tried to hold back and the pain in her eyes. The shadow that lay around her neck tightened its grip on her while another one raised her head by pulling her hair.

"Smile for the camera, are you nice. You do not want to make Skulduggery disappointed, do you?" Elizabeth smiled an evil smile and snapped several cards before she was happy. She quickly sent the best to Skulduggery before she released Valkyrie.

She turned around to go but turned around just before she left the room. "That's right, I almost forgot."

Elizabeth threw a blanket to Valkyrie as she quickly wrapped around herself to hold back the coldness that began to drip into her naked body. She knew she was about to end up in shock and it was important that she kept herself warm.

"Sleep well, Valkyrie", Elizabeth whispered before she walked out of the room.

At the same time as the door closed, the tears came. Valkyrie could no longer hold them inside, but let them flow down the cheeks. She felt humiliated, defiled and raped. She could never see Skulduggery in the eyes again after this. The only thing she could think of was that every time she would see him after this - _if there was an afterwards_ \- she would only think that he had seen her when she was as most vulnerable. She knew he would blame himself because he had not found her before and that would be all he could think of when he saw what she was thinking about.

A ringtone echoed in the small room and made Valkyrie twitch. It took her a few seconds to realize that the sound came from the phone she had received from Elizabeth. She picked it up and immediately recognized Skulduggery's number. A slight smile played on her lips and she answered before she thought about what she was doing.

"Skulduggery!"

"Valkyrie! Is that really you?"

"Yes! Oh, if you knew how much..." A sob interrupted her before she could continue. "How much I've longed to hear your voice!"

"Me too, Valkyrie. Me too."

It was quiet for a few seconds. There was so much Valkyrie wanted to tell Skulduggery, but the words would not come out of her mouth. As if Skulduggery could read her thoughts, he sighed deeply before saying "Valkyrie, I'm so sorry. If you knew what I've been through these days you've been away... That I've had a hell is an understatement. If I just had been faster or kept a better watch... I could have stopped this, I know! I was not strong enough..."

"Skulduggery, stop. You did your best. Rather, I should apologize for not telling anything before. If I had done that, we could have set up a strategy and maybe figured out that it was Elizabeth and could have stopped her."

"Valkyrie, this is not your fault. I understand why you chose not to say anything, now that I have got a chance to think about it. The reason I reacted as I did is because I worry about you and..." Skulduggery hesitated. "And because I care about you. I love you, Valkyrie."

Valkyrie's eyes were filled with new tears, but these were tears of joy. "I know, Skulduggery. I love you too."

It became silent for a minute. It was not an embarrassing silence, but an understanding silence. Suddenly it occured to Valkyrie _how much_ Skulduggery cared for her. She had heard it in his voice, in the way he had said "I love you". She was filled with such a happy feeling in her whole body that she thought she could fly. She was also filled with brand new hope. Now she knew that Skulduggery would do everything in his power to get her back.

To once again be able to hold her in his arms...

"Valkyrie, it's important that you listen to me now. I want you to understand _why_ Elizabeth has caught you. I want you to understand _why_ she feels so upset. You can not interrupt me while I tell you unless I say otherwise, understood?"

"Yes I understand. Hurry up, Skulduggery. I do not know how long we can talk before Elizabeth returns. She said goodnight to me when she walked out, but that does not mean she's not close by and listen in on us."

Skulduggery snorted. "Would not surprise me the least... Okay, I will be brief. It all started with me just killing Abyssinia and had started thinking about returning to the 'good side' when we started losing ground. Then Elizabeth came to us and suddenly I had someone else on my side who was almost as bloodthirsty as I and Abyssinia had been. It gave Mevolent's troops new hope and a new chance for me to spill a bit more blood.

Thanks to Elizabeth, the fighting once again turned to our advantage and so it continued for a long time. Ghastly and the others began losing the hope of ever winning the war when I completely sonika decided that I did not want to be evil anymore and changed side."

"Just like that?" asked Valkyrie and could not help laughing. When Skulduggery responded, Valkyrie could hear that he also was smiling.

"Yes, just like that. When I came back, Mevolent's army began to lose ground and this time they did not get it back. After months of fighting, I met Elizabeth on the battlefield and she knew, in some way, that I was Vile. She was furious at me wondering how I could voluntarily give up the power that was Vile. I told her how it was, that I simply wanted to go back to the good guys and atone for my crimes and that I had started getting bored. There was no one who could defeat me on the battlefield.

She became as you may understand furious and we fought. It became a bloody mass before I finally stood as the winner. In view of the damage she had received, I thought she could never survive so I left her where she fell. Now afterwards I should have double-checked, or even triple-checked, that she was really dead."

The silence once again broke out between them. Valkyrie thought about what Skulduggery just had told her. She was not surprised, but had guessed a lot of what he had told her during the days she had been kept captured. "Elizabeth spoke of a dream she had. That you crushed her dream. She wants to control the mortals just like Ravel wanted, right?"

"Yes. She believes that if I had not turned back, we had won the war and could have enslaved all mankind, much the way we saw in the alternative dimension where Mevolent is still alive and I'm still Lord Vile."

"I suspected that. She has not told that much, but of the little she said, I guessed a similar scenario of what you just told me."

"You learn, I hear. I am impressed and you if anyone knows how hard it is to impress me."

Valkyrie laughed and felt how a warmth spread inside her body. Skulduggery always knew what he would say to make her feel better when everything else around her felt dark.

"That I truly know, but then I have also learned from the best."

Skulduggery laughed and Valkyrie closed her eyes. If she concentrated hard enough, she could pretend that she sat in the Bentley with Skulduggery on her right side and that they had this conversation while on their way to the Sanctuary or elsewhere, maybe heading home to him after a hard work day.

It was as if Skulduggery could once again read her thoughts. His voice had now become soft with a splash of desperation. "Oh, Valkyrie... If I could only turn back the clock... I should have protected you better. I find myself waiting for you to drop one of your silly comments when I'm in my car or when I'm at home and talking to myself. I miss you so much..."

To Valkyrie's surprise and horror she heard how Skulduggery exclaimed something that sounded like a sob and when she realized that he was crying - or doing what was the closest to cry that he could come - she became very cold inside. She had no idea that Skulduggery was so tormented by her absence and it caused her blood to boil.

Who did this Elizabeth thought she was, really?! How did she think she could get away with this?! Nobody attacked the people she cared for and loved without having to pay for it!

"Skulduggery, do not worry. I'll take care of this in some way. You will soon get to embrace me again, I promise."

"Valkyrie, don't do anything hasty!" Skulduggery stopped cry and instead sounded panic-stricken. "You are weak after all the torture you have had to endure. You can hurt yourself more than Elizabeth can. You can lose yourself if you exercise too much magic at one and the same time!"

Valkyrie twitched at Skulduggery's words. She had not thought of that magic could also be dangerous to the practitioner. Surely, she had heard and seen examples of magicians who had exploded or had fallen dead after exercising a sufficient amount of magic at one and the same time, but she had never reflected over _why_ they died.

"If I were you I would listen to what the skeleton has to say", Elizabeth said, stepping out of the shadows with a smile on her lips.


	6. The Deal

**A new update! :D Just so you guys know, this is probably the penultimate chapter. I am going to wrap up this story now and chapter 7 _might_ be the last one. I really hope that you like this story this far and have enjoyed reading it! :)**

 **In this chapter I wanted to experiment with the thought of how Vile and Skulduggery communicates. I have always imagined that since Valkyrie could talk to Darquesse, what's to say that Skulduggery can not talk to Vile in a similiar way? They are after all (like Valkyrie and Darquesse was) one and the same**.

* * *

It became so quiet that you could hear a pin fall. Valkyrie and Skulduggery felt that time had stopped and they became stiff as statues both of them. Skulduggery was the first of them who responded and his words also prompted Valkyrie to wake up from her paralysis.

"Valkyrie, now listen carefully to me. Do not do anything that will annoy or enrage Elizabeth. Just take it easy and everything will work out fine. I am on her track and will soon find her, I promise you. I will not abandon you, do you hear that, Valkyrie? _I will find you._ "

Elizabeth laughed and let a shadow stroke over Valkyrie's naked breast. Valkyrie had not even noticed that the blanket she had had around her had fallen down and revealed her upper body. The shadow's stroke made a shiver spread along her backbone and she took a firmer grip on the phone.

" _Valkyrie, are you listening to me?"_ Skulduggery's voice was determined, but at the same time worried, and it made Valkyrie flinch.

"Yes, I'm listening..." she whispered, looking up at Elizabeth. When she met the necromancers gaze she wished she had not lifted her head.

Elizabeth had a crazy look that got Valkyrie to think of a rabid dog. At the same time, there were also glimpses of joy and insight, as if Elizabeth had just come across something she had been thinking for a long time. "This is too perfect to resist..."

Before Valkyrie had reacted Elizabeth had lifted her arms and a sea of shadows came towards Valkyrie. Instinctively, she raised her arms in a protective gesture and shouted out of pain when the shadows clawed at her unprotected skin. She dropped the phone and could hear how it bounced away on the floor while Skulduggery shouted her name and the blood poured down alongside her arms.

The pain that occured caused her to scream, but she did not dare to look at what damage Elizabeth's shadows had caused. Instead, she focused her eyes on Elizabeth and felt how a rage slowly but surely was built within her. She could feel how the magic within her bubbled and wanted out. There was nothing else she would rather do right now than to unleash it and tear Elizabeth into pieces.

"Yes, Valkyrie, let it out! Let me see what you can do! Let me see if you are really as terrifying as the rumors say you are!" Elizabeth smiled maniacally and let her shadows pull back so that a gap in her dress appeared in the middle of her chest. "Here I am, it is just to attack!"

"No, Valkyrie! It is a trick! She just wants to make you angry so she can get another sick reason to why she should hurt you more! Do not let her win! You are stronger than that!" Skulduggery shouted from the phone's speaker, but his voice sounded so far away. Valkyrie could pretend that his voice was only in her own head, so low it was.

"You will come to regret this, Elizabeth. When I am through with you nobody will be able to identify your corpse. I will wipe you out in total, both inside and outside." Valkyrie's voice was ice cold without any traces at all of human feelings. "I can stand feeling a little pain sometimes if I know it makes the people I love remain safe, but when my pain becomes part of _their_ pain..." Valkyrie smiled an ice cold smile. "Let's just say you will beg me for mercy before it's over."

Elizabeth did not answer, but just kept standing there with that smile on her lips. That smile that made Valkyrie go crazy and that she would wipe out. She had time to think 'Wonder what Elizabeth would think of that' before she threw herself against her kidnapper with a warcry...

* * *

 **Skulduggery's P.O.W.**

He heard the sound of a battle that was being unfold and it made him cold inside. He could not do anything to help Valkyrie since she did not hear him anymore. She was completely confined in her hatred to Elizabeth and all he could hope for was either that Valkyrie would succeed in overwhelming Elizabeth and managing in escaping or that Elizabeth would not hurt Valkyrie too much for daring to attack her.

"Valkyrie! Can you hear me?!" Skulduggery shouted, even though he knew it was futile. He started wandering while he was holding the phone hard pressed against the ear. "Dammit!"

He tried to understand what was happening through the sounds that reached him through the phone but it was not easy. Since the phone was a bit away from the fighting and the speaker function was not on, all the sounds were muted and made it difficult to understand what was happening. His frustration increased with every step he took and if nothing happened soon he would go crazy!

 _You need me. Admit it, you will not be able to find her before it is too late. She will be dead within a few minutes_ unless _you let me search for Elizabeth. You know I can find her._

Skulduggery pulled his gloved hand over his face and moaned in frustration. He did not know what he would do. There were so many things he wanted to do. He _wanted_ to save Valkyrie. He _did not_ want her to get more hurt than she already had. He _wanted_ to keep her safe. He _wanted_ to kill Elizabeth with his bare hands.

Was there anything he _did not_ want it was for Vile to take control. He _did not_ wantVile to get the honour of killing Elizabeth. He _did not_ want Vile to get a chance to hurt Valkyrie. But at the same time as all of these thoughts went through him, he knew Vile was right. He had not managed to find Elizabeth in his usual way and soon he had no more clues or plans available.

An evil laugh filled his head and Skulduggery clenched his hand into a fist. He knew that Vile heard his thoughts since they were the same person. It did not really make his mood any better...

"If I am going to let you come out, I have a claim."

 _That I will not hurt the girl. Do you think I'm stupid? The way you cringe around her, I'm surprised that no one besides me and Elizabeth have seen where your relationship is going. That none of you have confessed how you feel for each other yet is a wonder._

It was silent for a while as if Vile thought it through. Just as Skulduggery thought he had repent, he felt how Vile nodded and so their agreement was sealed. Skulduggery had no idea if Vile _could_ find Elizabeth, but now he could not back out. A promise was a promise.

With a deep breath, Skulduggery left the control to Vile. It did not take many seconds before shadows began to roll out of his suit and soon Skulduggery was gone and Lord Vile instead stood in his place.

Vile stretched up in his full lenght and let his shadows examine their new surroundings. He had never been in Skulduggery's house before and found to his surprise that he liked what the skeleton had done with the place. He looked around for a while before a reminder from Skulduggery got him to once again concentrate on his mission.

Skulduggery had on several occasions used a special powder to see if magic had been used recently when he and the girl had been on a crime scene. Necromancy also left traces behind, but since it was a magic that used the power of the dead, it was only the dead or those who wield it that was able to see it.

Vile concentrated and could quite quickly recognize the remains of the nekromancy that Elizabeth had used when she kidnapped Valkyrie almost a week ago. Given that he could still divine it, Elizabeth must be really strong, as only a strong necromancer could use so much nekromancy without perishing.

Vile smiled. _This could be really interesting..._

He went out and let himself float into the air where he stayed. He looked around and it didn't take long before he again witnessed the magic remains of the necromancy magic that Elizabeth had used when she attacked Skulduggery and shadow-walked away with the girl. Quickly, before Skulduggery would start to nag at him again, Vile followed the remains.

As he flew and came closer and closer to the core of the magic, the expectation rose within him. How long had it not been since he last had had a chance to fight someone who could compete with his own powers? Not since Darquesse anyway and it was over five years ago. Five years since he had seen the light of the day and taken control...

 _Enjoy this while you can, because in the near future you will be forced to once again sit in the passanger seat, Vile._

Vile snorted at Skulduggery's comment. "As far as I remember, we never said anything about you getting back the controll after I killed Elizabeth, _skeleton detective_. Our agreement was that I would get to kill Elizabeth as long as I didn't hurt the girl in any way."

 _And if you think I will let you have control for more than a second of what is necessary, you are hugely mistaken. Believe me, I know you both from the inside and the outside. I know that if I release you,_ no one _is safe. You will kill anyone who is against you, no matter how strong they are. You live to kill. You are my dark side that enjoys war and that I have been trying to get rid of for so many years._

Vile laughed and his shadows moved like waves along his body, as though they found Skulduggery's words hilarious. "Oh, Skulduggery. You are still the same. You think you can always be able to talk yourself out of a difficult situation. As you say, I'm a part of you and can therefore all your tricks. It will take a lot more to make me give up this. It will be interesting to see how you will try to get back the control and I hope you are aware that I will be prepared when it occurs."

Instead of coming up with some kind of insightful comment which Skulduggery always used to, he laughed him in the face, causing Vile to become angry. How dared the skeleton laugh at him, one of the strongest magicians ever to excist? He who, if he had only wanted it, could have killed Mevolent with a single gesture of his hand. He who would be able to wipe out all of humanity and kill the Faceless Ones if they had come back for revenge and enslave the humans because they had sent them to exile on another planet.

 _If you are so strong, how come you did not do any of those things when you had the chance? If you ask me, I think you boast more than you prove._

"Shut up!" Vile growled, increasing the speed as if he would be able to fly away from Skulduggery.

 _Admit, you are not as strong as you think you are. You were afraid that you had misunderstood your powers and that you could die if you were not as strong as you thought._ Skulduggery became silent for a few seconds, as if he were thinking about how he would continue. _Believe me, I know_ exactly _how you felt back then. There is nothing wrong with wanting to back away from a fight if you think it will end badly for yourself. Don't you agree that it was for the best what happened? Who knows where we had been today if you had chosen to try to kill Mevolent._

Vile didn't want to admit it, but he knew the skeleton was right. Now afterwards he had realized that it'd been for the best for Skulduggery to become himself again instead of having let him take over fully. If he had killed Mevolent and then the rest of humanity, he wouldn't have had anyone to fight with in the end. Where would he then have find himself today? Could he have been able to move to other dimensions like Darquesse and continue with his killing, or had he forever been stuck on earth with only himself as company?

"Alright, skeleton detective, I admit. It was probably for the best what was happening. Otherwise, I had not had the chance to be fighting against such a fine opponent like Darquesse, after all. However, I do not intend to thank you."

 _I did not expect that either. You are not the person who thanks, directly._

At this Vile could not help but laughing. "That is right. You know me, skeleton detective."

No reply came, but Vile could feel that Skulduggery was smiling. He looked around and noticed that during his conversation with Skulduggery he had lost the track after Elizabeth's shadow magic. He stopped and turned his head in all directions but could not find anything, so he decided to sink down to the ground to hopefully find something there that could help him get on the right track again.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, Vile felt the presence of nekromancy. It was everywhere around him and he understood that he must be near Elizabeth's hideaway, or at least in a place she recently had visited. He looked around but could not see anything that could tell him where Elizabeth was.

"Where are you, Elizabeth? I can feel your presence..." mumbled Vile for himself and concentrated. In front of his eyes he could see small shadows wobbling around him as if he was standing in a pool of shadows. They all came from the same source: a large oak tree to his left.

He walked over to the tree and laid his hand against it. As soon as his hand touched it, the tree began to pulsate from all shadows that surrounded it. Before he had time to pull back his hand, it was sucked into the tree. He tried to get it out but noticed that he was firmly stuck. He bent his knees and leaned back as he pulled his hand backwards.

 _Hard._

Vile managed to get out his hand a few centimeters, but then three new shadows came and took hold of the hand again. Soon he found himself caught in a deadly tug of war, where his only choice was to either give up and get fully caught in all of the trees shadows or fight.

He chose to fight.

The armour pulsed by shadows and soon they fought against the foreign shadows that wanted to hurt them. Vile commanded his shadows to attack without any mercy. They cut through the shadows of the tree as if they were butter and soon enough of them had let go of his hand so that he could get it free.

In the moment he was free, he let his shadows ravage free and cut where they reached. Splinters from the tree flew all around him, and soon Vile could see the contours of a stairway that led down underground. His shadows continued to cut manically in the tree and it did not take many minutes before the only thing left of the once majestic oak tree was a stub and a few stray branches that firmly hanged on.

Vile pulled his shadows back into the armour and allowed himself a few seconds to rest. He wanted to be in perfect condition when he met Elizabeth. He also knew that there could be more traps waiting for him as he walked down the stairs. He had no idea how far down Elizabeth's hideaway was or what kind of warning system she could have installed in there.

When Vile felt ready, he started his journey down the stairs. No torches or lights were lit so he found himself walking in total darkness. This did not concern him the least since he was one with the shadows and could use them to feel about his surroundings. He let his shadows stroke along the walls in order to determine if something was waiting for him in front, but he could not feel anything. This made him both relieved and worried. It did not have to mean anything, but at the same time something extraordinarily dangerous besides Elizabeth could be further ahead which he could not feel until it was in principle right in front of him.

He continued for a while and continued to feel his surroundings with his shadows. After a few hundred meters he saw a faint light coming from an open door. The door seemed to lead into a room with stone floors and Vile suspected that it was the room that Skulduggery had seen in the pictures that Elizabeth had sent to him.

At the same time as that thought arose, he felt how Skulduggery became angry. He would love to take control now when they had found what seemed to be Elizabeth's hideaway, or at least the place where she had held Valkyrie prisoner. Vile managed to keep Skulduggery back and slowly approached the door. The moment he walked into the room, the sight that met him made him stop.

In the middle of the room stood Elizabeth. Under her the contours of the girl Valkyrie Cain could be seen, in fetal position, nude and covered in new and old wounds. Blood had flowed from her wounds down to the floor and he heard himself whispering her name: "Valkyrie..."


	7. Revenge

**So here it is, the showdown between Vile/Skulduggery and Elizabeth! I really hope you will enjoy it! :) Please review!**

* * *

Four eyes stared at him. Two green and two dark brown. However, it was the dark brown that he focused his attention on. In them he could see the pain they had needed to endure, how much they had sacrificed for him, how much they loved him...

Quickly, so fast that none of the eyes could see him come, he had pushed the person who owned the green eyes and stood at the owner of the brown eyes and held her hard in his arms. He was so focused on her that he did not hear when the green eyes flew into the wall so hard that the wall got a big crack.

He stroked her hair slowly and looked deep into those brown eyes that he loved above all else. As he could do everything for. "Vile..." she whispered.

Vile shrugged and looked down at the girl in his arms. How did he get here, with her in his arms? He would never have... Then it hit him. Of course! Skulduggery must have taken control for a few seconds in the same second as he saw the girl's body lying in a puddle of her own blood. Considering how much he cared for her, it was not that weird when he thought about it.

 _Please, just a few more seconds so I can tell her what's happening. She is confused and on her way into a psychosis._

Vile snorted but let Skulduggery take control. The armour pulled back, but only in the face so Valkyrie could see that it was Skulduggery and not Vile who was there with her. "Valkyrie, I'm here now. I would come for you, do you remember me saying it?"

Valkyrie slowly nodded with half-closed eyes. She was so weak, pale and covered in bruises. Coagulated blood covered most of her body and small runnels of blood flowed alongside her unhealed wounds. She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but no sound came out of her lips.

Skulduggery hugged her carefully and put his head in her hair. "Valkyrie, I have to leave you for a while now. You're still in danger and now it's _my_ turn to save _you_. I'll be back soon, I promise."

Slowly he twined the blanket that lay on the mattress Valkyrie had slept on around her so that she would not be cold. He wanted her to stay warm to prevent her from falling in shock, but also to make sure she did not lose any more blood. When he was satisfied, he stood up and let some of his shadows lay around Valkyrie as a protective cocoon. If Elizabeth tried to attack Valkyrie, the shadows would protect her from getting any more injuries.

A sound made him turn around. Elizabeth was just climbing up from the wall that Skulduggery had pushed her into. Behind Elizabeth that once had been a solid wall, there was now a big hole that had emerged when the power from Skulduggery's push made her fly straight into it.

"I'm going to kill you for that..." Elizabeth growled and showed her teeth. "Do you think it's just to roll in here and _hurt me_ without it having any consequences? First, I'll put you out of combatable condition and then force you to watch when I _slowly, very slowly_ torture Valkyrie to death!"

Skulduggery did not answer her, but just looked at her with his empty eye sockets. He tilted his head as though he was listening to someone and then said "She is all yours. Go for it."

The armour closed itself and Elizabeth again stood face to face with Lord Vile. The two necromancers stood still and looked at each other. Valkyrie, who had found the strength to sit up and lean against the wall for support, understood that Vile and Elizabeth measured each other's strengths. After all, they had not met for hundreds of years and much had happened since that day.

As by a given signal, which only they could see or hear, both necromancers flew into each other in what could only be described as a tide of shadows. Wherever Valkyrie was putting her gaze, she could see nothing but shadows that cleaved, teared and cut in an attempt to access the others skin and bones. The shadows were shaped and changed according to the wishes of its practitioners, ranging from spears and hammers to razor sharp knives.

Valkyrie found herself having difficulty concentrating on what happened. The only thing she wanted was to close her eyes and disappear to a place where nothing could hurt her anymore. The only thing she wanted was to have some peace and quiet where she could think things through...

She woke up with a jerk that one of the shadows that Skulduggery had laid around her lay around her wrist and pushed hard. Somehow, it had felt that she had fallen asleep and woken her up. Valkyrie looked at it and for some reason she could not explain to herself, she stroked it tenderly as if she thanked it. The shadow wrapped itself around her hand and she did not know how she could know it, but the way the shadow touched her was a message from Skulduggery that said that she should not worry, that everything would be alright.

 _That he was there now and would not let anything more hurt her._

Valkyrie again looked at the two fighting necromancers. As far as she could see nothing new had happened since she last had watched them. She sighed and wished she could have helped Skulduggery, but given the treatment she had received from Elizabeth, it would take a long time before she would be able to fight again. If she just had not been so stupid!

She came to think back on what had happened before Skulduggery and Vile had got there. She had thrown herself straight into Elizabeth's shadows without worrying about what might happen to her. She had been so pissed off and had nothing else in her mind than tearing Elizabeth to pieces. She had evoked her magic and aimed at the gap in Elizabeth's dress, but before she had been able to realease the energy, Elizabeth had grabbed her wrist and raised her hand upwards so that the energy beam had hit the ceiling.

She had instead chosen to try to kick Elizabeth's knee to then follow up with a fist in her grinning face, but Elizabeth had seen what she had meant to do and blocked her kick and followed up with her own fist to her stomach. In the moment she lost her breath, Elizabeth had laid her hands around her face and looked her in the eyes. "Good try, Valkyrie, but not good enough, I'm afraid."

Then Valkyrie could not remember more than a black sea that surrounded them both and such a horrible pain that the world had disappeared around her for a few seconds. When she had regained consciousness, she had been lying on the ground in a large blood pool of her own blood and with freshly gashes around her entire body. She recalled that she had wondered why Elizabeth had not killed her when the sound of Skulduggery who whispered her name had interrupted her thoughts.

The feeling that filled her when she realized that Skulduggery had found her could not be described. She had been so relieved and happy, but at the same time worried about him, since she had seen, with her own eyes, what Elizabeth was capable of. She knew that if Elizabeth had the chance she could cut through Skulduggery's bones as easily as she had burst through her own skin and then there would not be much left of Skulduggery when Elizabeth was done with him.

All this and a little bit more, she would have liked to tell him when he had raised her into his arms, but found that she was too weak to say anything at all. Instead, with all her senses, she had taken in the feeling of _finally_ being by Skulduggery's side. The feeling of his bones against her, the sound of his velvety voice, his scent... Valkyrie was interrupted in her thoughts by Vile's voice that spoke to Elizabeth and she concentrated to hear what he said.

" _You have become significantly stronger since we last met_ ", Vile whispered with his hoarse voice. " _It will be a pleasure to tear you apart and hear you scream with pain when your limbs are teared apart from your body._ "

Elizabeth ducked from a shadow that was trying to cut her thigh muscle and sent away one of her own in a counterattack while laughing. "I never know if you praise or just state the facts, Vile. That's what I have always liked about you, that you are so _unpredictable_. If, on the other hand, you think that I'm going to let you kill me without resistance, you are _wrong_."

Valkyrie shouted out of horror when she saw one of Elizabeth's shadows coming inside Vile's armor and crawled into his shoulder. She tried to stand up, but noticed that she was too weak. She cursed herself because she had been so foolish for attacking Elizabeth when she was already weakened by blood loss and lack of food. If she only had listened to Skulduggery...

Without knowing it, she stood up and took a stabbing step towards Skulduggery, when the shadows that guarded her pushed her back against the wall she had just been leaning against. She looked down at them and tried to understand what this meant. Why couldn't she move? Had Skulduggery somehow enchanted them to protect her? As if the shadows understood her thoughts, they stretched out against her and pressed her gently back down on the mattress where they continued to apply pressure as soon as she tried to get up from the mattress.

She sighed and nodded down to them. "Okay, I understand. I will not try to throw myself into their fight any more."

The shadows eased their grip on her, but did not let her go. Valkyrie let them be and instead looked up to the battle that appeared before her. Vile did not seem to have received any more damage since Elizabeth had cut him in the shoulder, which relieved her. Instead, Vile had managed to get some hits on Elizabeth, both with his shadows, fists and kicks. Valkyrie could see the outline of a bruise on Elizabeth's cheek and she saw that she limped a little on her right leg, causing Valkyrie to suspect that Vile had got in a rather hard kick either on her knee or shin.

"Be careful, Skulduggery..." whispered Valkyrie and felt how a lonely tear slid down her cheek.

As if he had heard her, Vile turned his head and looked straight at her. The shadows around his helmet pulled back and Skulduggery looked her in her eyes with his black eye sockets. He leaned his head and the gesture got Valkyrie to smile. Skulduggery had heard her! He was still in there!

Elizabeth took note of the opportunity and threw herself toward Vile. She flew into him with her shoulder first and they rolled around a few times in the small room before Vile managed to tear himself away and immediately attacked with his shadows. Elizabeth, however, saw his attack coming and blocked with her own shadows. She held Vile's shadows while forming some new ones to a sharp spear which she cut Vile's armor with.

"Watch out!" Valkyrie screamed, trying again to sit up, but once again was pushed down by the shadows that guarded her.

Vile blocked Elizabeth's attacks while he walked closer and closer to her. Soon he stood right in front of her and took a hold of her wrist. If it were not for all the shadows that surrounded them and trying to hurt the other, one might have thought that they were an in love couple from the Middle Ages who had found each other again after the man had been to war for many years. However, the illusion lasted only a few seconds. Vile lifted Elizabeth's wrist and turned it until a loud cracking sound could be heard. In the small room that consisted only of stone walls, the sound of broken legs was so high that Valkyrie wanted to lay her hands around her ears to shut out the sound.

Elizabeth's scream soon followed, and her hand lay relaxed alongside her side. She stared at Vile with rage radiating from her eyes. "How dare you?!" she screamed and used her second hand to send away a massive wall of shadows against Vile.

Vile had no choice but to jump back from Elizabeth to avoid most of the shadows, but despite this, some of them hit him in the chest, causing him to fly into the wall next to Valkyrie. When the dust had subsided, Valkyrie looked at Vile where he was laying only a meter from her. She could see that he had not hurt himself seriously and soon he got up and brushed away dust from the armour.

Valkyrie lifted her hand and let it encircle Vile's left. In the same moment as their hands braided together, the shadows that had guarded her went back into Vile. "Here, Skulduggery. I think you need these more than I do. In order to defeat Elizabeth, you need all the power you can get. Believe me, I will be alright. If Elizabeth tries something, I'll have enough power left in me to put up a shield that protects me from at least one attack, maybe two."

At first it seemed that Vile would protest, but after a few seconds he nodded and gave her hand a careful push before releasing it and again turning to Elizabeth. She floated in the air, supported by her shadows with her hair swirling in line with the shadows which gave the impression that her hair had merged with them. Valkyrie thought she looked like an angel of darkness coming up from hell. The similarity caused her to shiver and she pulled the blanket around her closer to her body.

"I may have respected you once upon a time, Vile, but now... Now the only thing I am feeling is hatred. How could I be so stupid that I believed you and I could rule over the mortals? I should have understood that you would change. After all, you only fight on the winning side, so you get more chances to kill..." Elizabeth laughed a laugh without the slightest feeling.

Vile did not answer, but just went closer to Elizabeth. When he was right in front of her shadows, he also floated up into the air and now they floated opposite each other, the two necromancers who once had been brother-in-arms but who were now sworn enemies. That once upon a time had fought along each other, but now they did not want anything higher than to tear each other apart...

Valkyrie frowned her eyebrows. Something about what Elizabeth had said had made a thought to be born in her. Could it be that Elizabeth once had... _liked_ Vile? As in, _really liked_? That would explain a lot. Why she was so obsessed with him, why she wanted to have him by her side. When Valkyrie really thought about it, Elizabeth was not so different from Abyssinia, Skulduggery's ex.

She was interrupted in her thoughts by Vile who was grunting in pain and when Valkyrie looked up she to her horror saw Elizabeth hold a stranglehold on Vile with her unbroken hand while letting her shadows found their way inside his armor where they cut him without any kind of mercy. Vile tried desperately to protect himself, but as soon as any of his shadows tried to drive away one of Elizabeth's, she immediately sent a new one who threw his away.

Valkyrie understood that if she allowed this to continue, Vile, and even Skulduggery, would lose. If they lost, they would disappear forever, as Elizabeth would not hold anything back this time. This time she would not stop before her enemy was totally wiped out...

She stood up. She walked peacefully and firmly over to Elizabeth and was not surprised when none of Elizabeth's shadows hurt her. They were completely focused on Vile and did not see her as a threat. That perception would change, and soon... When Elizabeth understood what she was planning to do, all those black shadows would turn towards her instead.

The moment she stood in front of Elizabeth, the necromancer catched a glimpse of her. She wrinkled her eyebrows but did not stop cutting Vile. Valkyrie smiled and stretched out her hands, resulting in that the blanket she wore fell to the floor. She once again stood completely naked in front of Elizabeth, but the difference this time was that she did not care about it. Instead, she concentrated and a faint light could be seen in her hands. At the same time as the light arose, Elizabeth got a hint of fear in her eyes and pulled back her shadows from Vile.

"Valkyrie, don't do it!" Vile and Skulduggery said with one voice, which allowed Vile's hoarse voice to get a hint of Skulduggery's velvet one. "You are too weak! You do not know how your body will react to your magic when you are this weak!"

Valkyrie shook her head while she continued watching Elizabeth in the eyes. "Do not worry, Skulduggery. This time it is my turn to save you and I will not fail. _I love you, Skulduggery._ "

Before Skulduggery had time to stop her, Valkyrie raised her hands and put them against Elizabeth's chest. The gleam in her hands grew until it was so strong that Elizabeth had to protect her eyes, but Vile, who did not have any, saw it all. All three were enclosed by Valkyrie's light and Vile felt the strength of it.

 _Stop her! She will kill herself if she continues!_ Skulduggery shouted in his head, but Vile did nothing to stop the girl. He wanted to see what she could do. There was something special about her, even he must acknowledge that. Not many would sacrifice themselves as selflessly as she did now. She was fully aware that she could die, yet she had chosen to do this.

She must really love you, Skulduggery, thought Vile and felt how Skulduggery tried to get out so he could stop the person he loved above everything else from hurting herself just to save him.

Just then Elizabeth started screaming and the light became even stronger. Vile had to back a few steps to not be drawn into the girl's light. Who knows what could happen to him if he was pulled into that light, since he almost only consisted of shadows? Perhaps he would suffer even though it was not directed at him. After all, neither he nor Skulduggery knew what Valkyrie's new powers really were.

The gleam faded slowly, and when Vile could lift his eyes again, the sight that struck him was making him freeze on the spot. Elizabeth lay on the floor in front of Valkyrie, completely immobile. All her shadows were gone and her skin was deathly pale, as if Valkyrie had drained her powers. Valkyrie stood as still as a statue with her hands still stretched out. Vile could not see her face, so he did not know if she was feeling okay or not, which made Skulduggery scream at him to go check on her.

Vile walked around Valkyrie and up to Elizabeth. He bent down and felt after her pulse. It was there, but extremely weak. He could not feel the smallest ounce of Necromancy in Elizabeth's body, which could mean two things. Either that Valkyrie had taken away Elizabeth's powers or temporarily blocked them. Regardless, Vile was not going to take any risks. He laid his hands around Elizabeth's neck and twisted until a cracking was heard while letting one of his shadows pierce her heart.

He wanted to be a hundred percent sure Elizabeth died this time.

Vile stood up and was just about to turn around when a punch from behind made him fall down on the floor. He rolled around and stood up on one knee while looking up. In front of him the girl was surrounded by Elizabeth's shadows. They twisted around her as if she was covered in the darkest darkness, and Vile understood that the shadows somehow had jumped from Elizabeth to her just before her light had struck and incapacitated Elizabeth.

 _We have to get the shadows away from her. They will feed on her life energy until she is completely drained. If we let it happen she will die._

Vile laughed without any emotion and dodged out the way from a shadow that Valkyrie sent after him. "Why should I care about the girl, _skeleton detective_? _You_ are the one who loves her, not _me_."

 _Because if you are not going to do anything, I will force you._

Vile felt how Skulduggery's will was blended with his own and how Skulduggery forced him to get himself closer to Valkyrie. He tried to fight against Skulduggery's control, but quickly noticed that he could not get out of the skeleton's grip. Instead, he decided to merge with Skulduggery and it did not take long before they stood right in front of the girl.

Valkyrie's eyes were unseeing and Skulduggery knew that it was because the shadows controlled her and not the other way around. She was entirely in the necromancys grip and since she could no longer use that magic, it had now taken control of her in order to be able to harm its enemy. What they did not know was that their enemy was not going to let them take advantage of their new host body for so long.

Skulduggery/Vile raised their hands and began to first create a hole in the window that was above them, to then use their own shadows to draw out the shadows surrounding Valkyrie. They forced the shadows to roll into a ball which they then threw out through the broken window. Without a body to take over, the shadows would soon disappear by themselves.

The sound of a body that fell to the ground made Vile flinch and that moment gave Skulduggery enough time to take over the control again. He drew his attention to Valkyrie. She lay completely limp under his feet and he lifted her up in his arms. She had her eyes closed, did not breathe and her body was ice cold. Skulduggery shook her gently but got no reaction.

"Valkyrie, do you hear me? It's me, Skulduggery. Everything is alright now. Elizabeth is gone, she can not hurt you anymore." He laid his head against her forehead and pressed his teeth against her cold skin in a kiss. "I'm here now, everything will be fine. I promised I would find you, did I not?"

Valkyrie's eyes moved under her closed eyelids and it did not take long before she started breathing again. It was as though his voice had pulled her back from the dead and he was _extremely_ grateful for that. Skulduggery did not know what he would have done if he had lost Valkyrie. A shiver propagated through him, and immediately he threw away all thoughts of her death.

"Skulduggery..." whispered Valkyrie and slowly opened her eyes. "Is it you?"

"Yes, Valkyrie, it is. I'm here now." He stroked her cheek very tender. "At last we are together again. I thought I'd lost you the moment I stepped into this room. If I had only used Vile earlier, I could have..."

"Sch..." whispered Valkyrie and slowly raised her finger that she laid over his teeth. "I understand. It must... have been extremely... difficult to succeed... keeping control of Vile... under these kind of... circumstances. I am... proud of you... Skulduggery. Thank you for... saving me."

"Until the end."

"Until the end", Valkyrie replied and slowly lifted her head up against Skulduggery while she let the finger that had rested on his teeth slide down to his clavicle where she activated his façade tattoo. In the same moment his human face appeared, she kissed his now human lips and the feeling of _finally_ being able to show Skulduggery what she really felt for him was overpowering.

Skulduggery answered her kiss and pushed her closer to himself as if he were worried that all of this would just be a wonderful dream that he would soon wake up from. He could stay in this moment for the rest of his life. The moment where he finally got to embrace and kiss the girl he loved over everything else and knowing that she felt the same for him.

As they drew apart, Skulduggery kept holding Valkyrie in a careful embrace in fear of causing her more harm. He laid his head against her hair and drew in the smell of her scent that was the most wonderful smell in the world, and that he would never get enough of. "I love you, Valkyrie Cain."

"And I love you, Skulduggery Pleasant."

Skulduggery looked down at Valkyrie and soon their lips once again met in a new kiss. This one lasted a bit longer and Valkyrie pushed herself closer to Skulduggery. Not in a sexual way, but just to assure herself that he really was there with her and that he really _loved_ her the way she loved him. That he really was there by her side and forever would be.

When the kiss broke this time, Valkyrie put her head against Skulduggery's chest and closed her eyes. She sighed happily and could _finally_ relax in the knowledge that she was again safe thanks to Skulduggery. Her mentor, partner, best friend and now boyfriend.

"Valkyrie, do you remember what we were talking about before you disappeared?"

"Mm..."

"If I had not taken you with me that day, even though you actually _threatened_ my hat, would you still have trampled on it?"

Valkyrie laughed and the sound of it got Skulduggery's non-excisting heart swell with joy. This had been a test to see if Valkyrie was really back with him. If she understood what he was talking about, it meant that she had not taken too bad damage to her mental health, something that relieved Skulduggery a lot.

"What do you really think about me, Skulduggery? Do you think that I would have done such a disgusting thing against such a delicate thing as one of your hats? No, I probably had just put it on my head and challenged you to try to take it away from me. I now know that I had probably not come a long way, but I've always hoped and thought you still would have chosen to take you with me, simply because you would have understood that it would be interesting to have me along."

"And you are quite right in that, Valkyrie. The last 13 years I've had you by my side has been amazing in a way I did not think could be possible."

"You know me, Skulduggery. Fantastic, beautiful and absolutely irresistible."

"Surely you are", said Skulduggery, and again bent down towards Valkyrie. The kiss he gave her got Valkyrie's entire body to wear herself free from her cold condition and get filled with a heat that only the skeleton above her could give her.

* * *

 **I gotta admit that I took some liberties considering Valkyrie's powers. But since we do not know _everything_ she can do yet, I thought to myself "What the hell! Let's go for it!" Hope you won't hate me for this!**

 **I know that I said that this chapter was probably going to be the last, and it kind of is in many ways. But I am going to write an epilogue as well, but it's going to be _completely_ Valduggery and contain sexual themes, so if you can't stand reading that, please consider this chapter to be the last one!**


	8. Together Again

**So here it is! The final chapter! I really hope you have enjoyed this story and I would appreciate some reviews where you tell me what you thought :)**

 _ **Warning! This chapter contains mainly of Valduggery and sexual themes! If you can not read about any of these, please don't read this chapter or post any rude comments! You have been warned!**_

* * *

Valkyrie Cain woke up by laying in a bed – a _real_ bed – in the Sanctuary's medical bay. At first she could not remember why she was there. She wrinkled her eyebrows and tried to remember what had happened to her recently, but it was not until she had turned her head and looked into Skulduggery Pleasant's black eye sockets that the memories came back to her.

The necromancer Elizabeth Gregory who wanted revenge on Skulduggery for taking away her dream from her. The torture she had been exposed to. Vile/Skulduggery and Elizabeth's fight that made her use the last of her powers to protect Skulduggery. How Elizabeth's powers entered into herself and how they tried to hurt Vile/Skulduggery. How they had managed to draw and harm the shadows before their powers had killed her. And last but not least, _how she for a few seconds had been dead before..._

"You brought me back, Skulduggery..." Valkyrie concluded her thoughts out loud and smiled a grateful smile to the skeleton who had never disappointed or left her side.

Skulduggery nodded and took her hand in his. "I did, Valkyrie. When I held your ice cold body with all those injuries... I really thought I'd lost you."

"But here I am!" Valkyrie said and surprised both herself and Skulduggery by laughing. "You're not going to get rid of me so easily."

Skulduggery got something serious about him and Valkyrie's laughter got stuck in her throat. "I _never again_ want to have to see you so... vulnerable, Valkyrie. I thought I never again would have to see you dead before me after that time when we defeated Darquesse. It was one of the worst moments of my life, Valkyrie."

Valkyrie nodded and squeezed Skulduggery's hand where it lay in hers. She understood exactly how he felt. During the year he had been stuck with the Faceless Ones, the thought had struck her more than once that Skulduggery could very well be dead when they opened the portal that would take her to him. She had vainly tried to get them out of her mind every time they sneaked in, but even how often she pushed them away, they always returned when she least suspected it.

"I find myself seeing you lying in my arms, immobile, covered with cuts and bruises after the torture Elizabeth gave you. You've been hit and cut before by others, but never this... intensively." Skulduggery sighed and raised his hand. He stroked Valkyrie's cheek with his gloved hand. "I blame myself because I did not understand that Vile could trace Elizabeth earlier. If I had only listened to him, I could have made sure that many of the injuries you got could have been avoided."

Valkyrie lay her free hand over Skulduggery's teeth to make him stop talking. "Skulduggery Pleasant, you did the right thing. Both you and I know why you waited so long to induce Vile. He's _dangerous_. Every time he peeks out, there is a risk that he will take control permanently, just as Darquesse did with me. We had an incredible luck this time that you managed to regain control."

Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie and she knew only by looking into his eye sockets that he knew she was right. Even though he blamed himself for her injuries, he knew basically that he had made the right decision. If it were something they both knew and were accustomed to at this point, it was sometimes necessary to make choices and sacrifices that feels wrong and make one feel bad, but in the end it was the right thing to do.

"Sometimes I suspect you're more like your uncle than you want to admit, Valkyrie. This sounds like a typical conversation he and I could have."

"He was a good uncle and he learned me incredibly much about the world that I did not believe in when I was little, but as I now know, is true."

Skulduggery nodded. "If you only knew how many times he wanted to tell the truth to you but did not dare since he was worried about putting you in danger and leading you into a road that might not have been meant for you."

"I wonder what he had done if he had been told that this is what I was born to do before he died? That I am supposed to be doing magic, I mean. Do you think he had told me, then?"

Skulduggery shook his head. "Probably not. Gordon probably thought that if he had told you there was a chance that you would not want to be doing magic, since you are the kind of person who becomes more interested in things when they come as a surprise. So in other words, if you instead got the magic 'thrown in your face' – which you could say that you got the day you and I met – there would be a greater chance that you became interested in magic and wanted to know more about it."

Valkyrie laughed. "That sounds just like Gordon Edgley! It shows that you two were really close friends."

"We really were."

The silence lay between them, but it was no unpleasant silence. They kept looking each other in the eyes, and Valkyrie found that she was smiling a happily but at the same time sad smile. She still missed her uncle a lot, but the missing of him had been mildened a little by the help from Skulduggery. In a strange and _really_ morbid way, she had Gordon's death to thank for her chance of getting to know Skulduggery Pleasant.

As if Skulduggery could read her thoughts, he stroked her cheek tenderly while squeezing her hand that he still held. Valkyrie could see on Skulduggery's body language that he also missed Gordon and that he too was morbidly grateful for the death of her uncle.

They got interrupted by China that came into the room. Skulduggery was about to release Valkyrie's hand, but she kept holding it. He looked at her with a surprised look in his face, but Valkyrie just smiled. She did not care if the others found out that she and Skulduggery had gone from partners in crime to partners in love. She namely suspected that many of their closest friends and acquaints had understood that it had been something going on between them under a long time.

"Ah, Valkyrie! Nice to see that you are finally awake. We have been _so_ worried!" China walked over to Valkyrie and gave her a hug, which Valkyrie answered with her free arm. "How are you feeling?"

"I am feeling fine, China. Most of my wounds has healed thanks to Synecdoche and her assistans. I will be fully restored later today, by the latest tomorrow. I will not have any scars left, which I am glad for. Considering what an amazing body I have it would be a disaster if it was covered in a lot of scars!"

China laughed and gave Valkyrie a new hug before she pulled back. Her gaze swept over Valkyrie and stopped some second longer at her and Skulduggery's interlaced hands. She raised an eyebrow but did not say anything. Instead an understandable smile could be seen in her face.

"Anything else, Grand Mage?" asked Skulduggery that had seen where China's gaze had stopped.

China looked up at him with that smile still attached to her lips. "No. I just wanted to see if Valkyrie had woken up and check on her injuries. I am happy to see that she is once again up on her legs and can be put into duty the days to come. I will call for you in a couple of days when your services will be needed again."

With those words China strode out of the room. As soon as the door had closed behind her Valkyrie could hear how Skulduggery sighed next to her. When she looked at him he had laid his hand over his face. "Now it will not take long before the whole Sanctuary finds out about our 'status'."

Valkyrie laughed and leaned towards Skulduggery. At the same moment that he let down his hand from his face she gave him a small kiss on his teeth. "Does it really matter, then? They will nontheless see it as soon as we walk out of here. And I still stand for what I said earlier before China walked in: people have suspected for a long time that there is something going on between us and has just waited for us to show it pubicly."

Skulduggery tilted his head and Valkyrie could see that he was amused. "How come that I have not heard anything about this?"

"Because you are not best friend with the Grand Mage."

Skulduggery laughed and laid his hand on her cheek. He leaned closer and in the same moment that his teeth met her lips Valkyrie felt how butterflies bubbled up in her stomach. Even though Skulduggery had no real lips to kiss her with (except for when he had his façade on), the way he pressed himself against her told her how much he loved her and cared for her. He would do everything in his powers to protect her and make sure that she did not have to get into as much trouble as she had been doing under Elizabeth's "care".

She pressed her lips harder against his teeth and laid her arms around him in a tight embrace. Skulduggery laid one of his hands in her hair and let the other hand fingertips stroke along her back. Chills of pleasure traveled among her spine and spread its way out to the rest of her body. She took an even harder hold of his shirt and pressed him even closer against herself. Skulduggery broke off the kiss and looked at her with restrained desire.

"Valkyrie, what are you doing with me?" he whispered and Valkyrie could hear the desire also in his voice. "What is it with you that makes me having such a hard time to controll myself? If you only knew how long I have longed for this..."

Valkyrie smiled and laid her forehead against Skulduggery's. "I can imagine, Skulduggery. I have also longed for this for some time. I have simply been too afraid to show my real feelings for you, since I was worried for that you would only see me as a friend and partner."

"You are my best friend, Valkyrie. Nothing is going to change that. I love you, Valkyrie Cain. Until the end."

"Until the end", Valkyrie whispered and activated Skulduggery's façade. This time he wore a face with high cheek bones, green eyes and red hair. Valkyrie let her one hand play with his hair while the other lay over Skulduggery's chest. To her big surprise she could feel heart beat in there. "What...?"

Skulduggery smiled and gave her cheek a tender kiss. "Surprise."

"But when have... How long... Who...?" Valkyrie was so shocked that she could not formulate a real sentence.

"While you slept and healed I walked over to China to ask her for a favour. We have under a long time talked about improving my façade, which we had already begun with during your five year long absence after the war with Darquesse. At the beginning we had only managed to get a body without organs that I only could wear a couple of hours per day. Both me and China has been searching for sigils under many years that would give me a _complete_ body with working organs as well, but it has proved to be more difficult than we have thought.

Then, just before you got kidnapped by Elizabeth, China thought she had found the the right sigils to be able to finish the work and which would also give me access to a complete body as long as the sigils are active and not just under a couple of hours per day. Before she had time to tattoo them on me though, you disappeared and I got other things to think about."

"Let me guess. You walked over to China and let tattoo in these sigils while I slept so you could have something positive to show me when I woke up?"

"Precisely." Skulduggery nodded. "So... What do you think?"

Valkyrie gave Skulduggery a mischivious smile and laid her lips against his ear. "I like the face and the thought of you having a body under all of those clothes really appeal to me. The problem is just that I can not get a good look at your new body _while_ you are wearing all those clothes..."

Skulduggery shivered when Valkyrie's voice stroked his ear and he had to restrain himself from throwing himself over her and attacking her with hungry kisses and caresses. Instead he lifted an eyebrow and gave Valkyrie a sexy smile which caused her to bit her lip. Skulduggery saw that even she had a hard time to restrain herself. "That should be able to be arranged, miss Cain. Unfortunately I do not think that the environment we now are in is suited for those kind of... 'activities'."

Valkyrie sighed and gave Skulduggery her best puppy-eye look. "Awh, why not? No one needs to know..."

"Believe me, it hurts me as much as it does to you Valkyrie not to be able to touch you in that kind of way. I want to remind you though that we currently are finding ourself in a place where people are moving about all the time and that _anyone_ could come marsching in here and catch us in the act. When I explore your body I want to have you for myself and be able to enjoy you to the fullest without having to worry about being interrupted." Skulduggery let his fingertips travel down along Valkyrie's cheek and throat in a teasing caress while he at the same time gave her yet another sexy smile that promised both this and that.

Valkyrie closed her eyes and bit her lips as not to moan out loud. God, the desire that right now flowed through her almost got her to burst! She wanted Skulduggery and that _now_ , even though that she knew what Skulduggery said was true. It was too risky to try anything in here. Synecdoche could after all come in here at any moment and check up on her.

As if the doctor had read Valkyrie's thoughts she stepped into the room with a whiteboard in her hand and looked up just in time to see Skulduggery with his façade activated and with his hand on Valkyrie's throat while Valkyrie had her eyes closed and bit herself in the lip. Synecdoche cleared her throat and it got the two detectives to quickly separate. "I apologize if I interrupted something."

Valkyrie's cheeks got red of embarrassment but Skulduggery was as calm as ever. "Not at all, doctor Synecdoche. How does the test results look? Is Valkyrie healthy?"

Synecdoche nodded and gave Valkyrie a calming smile. "Yes, everything is in order. Your results are looking good, especially after the blood transplantation that we did immediately when you came here. It was lucky Skulduggery managed to get you here so quick, otherwise the situation would had been a lot more critical."

Valkyrie managed to return Synecdoche's smile. "Yes, I am lucky that have Skulduggery. If it had not been for him..."

Skulduggery pushed her hand and then once again turned towards Synecdoche. "When can Valkyrie be signed out?"

"When she feels she's ready. I can not do anything more for her. The scars will disappear by themselves in a couple of hours and the bruises should already be gone thanks to the healing bath she received after we had given her blood." Synecdoche gave them both a new smile and prepared herself for leaving and look after her other patients. Just when she reached the door she turned around once again and looked at them. "Yeah, that's right, I almost forgot! Congratulations to you both. You both make a perfect couple. I wish you the best of luck!"

The both detectives looked as equally shocked and Skulduggery was just about to answer the doctor when she left them both with a smile on her lips.

"That was... awkward, to say the least. I guess that China could not wait that long to tell the good news."

Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie and tilted his head. "To quote you, Valkyrie: 'Does it really matter, then? They will nontheless see it as soon as we walk out of here', was that not what you said?"

Valkyrie gave Skulduggery's shoulder a punch but had to smile. "Yes, I did. Come on now, I want to get out of here!"

"Always as impatient." Skulduggery gave her a kiss and then walked away to get her clothes. When he came back with them Valkyrie had pulled back the blanket and now sat on the bedside dressed only in a green hospital gown. "That suits you."

Valkyrie made a face and recieved her clothes. "Turn around and no peeking! Not that I do not want you to see me naked, but not until we are alone and can enjoy each other, to quote you."

Skulduggery did as she had asked him and turned around. He heard the rustle of clothes coming off and on and had to fight the urge to turn around just to get a _little_ glimpse of Valkyrie's beautiful body. "Just so you know I have technically already seen you naked a couple of times. If I do not remember totally wrong I have seen you naked at four different occasions. The first time at your parents house, the second time when we fought Darquesse, the third time when Elizabeth send me that picture and the fourth time while we fought against and after we defeated Elizabeth."

"Technically it was my reflection you saw that first time, if I do not remember totally wrong, but you're right. Despite that I would like to think that when you see me naked the next time it's like you're seeing me naked for the first time. Also I do not think that you would be able to keep your hands from me if you saw me naked now." Valkyrie put on her pants and walked over to Skulduggery. "Done! Can we get out of here now?"

"As I said: Always as impatient", Skulduggery answered and smiled. He took her hand in his and together they walked out of the medical bay. They met a lot of sorcerers that looked at them when they walked by, but Valkyrie was way too happy and excited to notice them.

It did not take them long time to reach the Bentley and when they were forced to let go of each others hands to be able to get into the car Valkyrie felt how disappointed she became. She liked the feeling of Skulduggery's hand in hers. She comforted herself with that she would soon have both his hands over all of her body and that thought got her in turn to get filled of a light excitment that started in between her legs and that traveled up through her whole body.

The drive back to Haggard did not take long, but for Valkyrie it felt like an eternity. To make the time move faster she decided to tease Skulduggery a bit. She leaned forward as far as the seatbelt let her and whispered sensually in his ear: "What do you want to do when we arrive at your place, Skulduggery?"

Skulduggery shook and took a harder grip on the steering wheel. God, Valkyrie really knew how she would do to make him go crazy! If she only knew what kind of thoughts that went through him right now. There was so much he wanted to do with her, so much he wanted to explore... Instead of telling all this to her, he was content with laying his hand on her inner thigh and stroke it slowly.

Valkyrie moaned low in Skulduggery's ear and let the tip of her tongue stroke along his earlobe. By Skulduggery's reaction to judge, Valkyrie first thought they would drive down into the ditch, but since Skulduggery was such a skilled driver he managed to get the car back on track again. Considering his reaction, Valkyrie knew that she could tease Skulduggery _even more_. The more she made him want her, the quicker they would be by his place, which in turn meant that she would sooner get him in her arms.

"Do you like what I'm doing to you, Skulduggery?"

"More than you think... If you do not stop, I'm afraid of what I can do."

Valkyrie laughed and let her lips brush against Skulduggery's cheek to then wander down along his throat and neck. She let her hand caress his chest and she became extremely satisfied when she could feel the musculature that silhouetted underneath his shirt. Oh, she could only imagine how Skulduggery would look like under all those clothes. How his skin would shine and how his muscles would move as gracefully as when he was skeleton.

Skulduggery turned to her and gave her a kiss that showed her how much he desired her and it made her shake from repressed desire. Why would it be so far to Skulduggery's house?! Just as Skulduggery released her lips she looked up right to see the exit to his house and she smiled. Soon... Soon she would get to explore the man she loved above all else.

At the same time as Skulduggery swung in front of his house and parked the Bentley, Valkyrie took off the seat belt and turned to Skulduggery. He looked at her with the same repressed desire as she and Valkyrie knew they could not back away now. They both wanted each other and that _now_.

As from a given signal, they simultaneously opened the car doors and exited the Bentley. Valkyrie was the first to enter the front door, and at the same moment she touched the door handle, she felt Skulduggery's hands around her waist and his lips against her neck. She closed her eyes while enjoying the feeling of having Skulduggery's lips against her skin. She opened the door but did not step inside. Instead, she felt how Skulduggery lifted her up and put her over his shoulder. She got so surprised that she gave out a shriek of surprise. She tried to kick herself free, but pretty soon noticed that Skulduggery held her in an iron grip.

"Skulduggery, what are you doing?!" Valkyrie screamed-laughed.

"Did I not tell you that I did not know what I could do if you did not stop? See this as a revenge because you almost got us both killed. You're lucky I'm such a skilled driver, Valkyrie."

"Hello! It's not my fault that you're a typical having-difficulty-to-concentrate-while-my-girlfriend-kisses-me person! By the way, I saw how much you really liked it..." Valkyrie smiled and managed to get up so much that she could bite Skulduggery in the shoulder, causing Skulduggery to grunt in surprise before throwing her on the bed in her room that he had let install for her.

Valkyrie moaned when she hit the bed, but soon got other things on her mind. Skulduggery's lips found her and began kissing her hungrily. She answered the kiss and laid her arms around his neck and back to make him come closer. Skulduggery's hands quickly found her breasts and began to massage them while he continued kissing her hungrily and passionate. The two detectives moaned into each other's mouths and trembled from all the feelings that rinsed through them.

Without Valkyrie knowing how it had happened, she suddenly found herself laying naked in front of Skulduggery. He looked down at her and the look he gave her seemed to go straight into her soul. It was as though he really _saw_ her, her whole being and not just the bodily part.

"Valkyrie, I never thought I'd meet someone like you... You're the light in my darkness, the star that leads me home when I'm lost. No words can describe what I feel for you or how much I love you..."

"You do not have to say it. Show me instead. Make love to me, Skulduggery..."

"Are you sure? You are well aware that if we do this there is no going back? I do not want to pull you into something you'll regret later, Valkyrie."

Valkyrie stroked Skulduggery's cheek. "Look me in the eyes, Skulduggery. I've never been so sure about wanting something like I am right now. My body, no my _soul_ , screams for you. I _want you, Skulduggery Pleasant._ "

Skulduggery did not answer. Instead, he helped Valkyrie to take off his clothes. For every time a new garment fell off Valkyrie stroked with her hands over the naked skin. Just as she had suspected, Skulduggery was muscular and his skin was so soft and covered in, to her surprise, scars. She stroked over them carefully. "How come you are so covered in scars?"

"I asked China to transfer all the damage I have had during the years I lived as a skeleton. I want to look at these injuries and remember what I've gone through to get them. That way, I can honour the people I have lost and remember the choices I have made that led to who I am today."

Valkyrie smiled and kissed one of the scars that covered Skulduggery's stomach and it caused Skulduggery to moan low. "They suit you... It makes you become... whole, in the absence of a better word. I prefer you as a skeleton, but understand why you want a temporary body. There's so much fun you can do together..."

She continued to kiss Skulduggery's stomach and unbuttoned his pants. She could not help but see and feel the bump that was under there and now when she got herself a good gaze on it she widened her eyes. She had been suspecting that Skulduggery would be well packaged in the lower regions, but not _this_ packaged. She could not help but wondering how he would be able to fit inside of her, but quickly shot away that thought. Skulduggery would never hurt her intentionally.

The feeling of being observed made her look up. Straight into Skulduggery's green eyes that radiated desire, love but also... was it fear? "What is worrying you, Skulduggery?" Valkyrie laid her hand on his cheek and looked at him with a worried expression on her face.

"I..." Skulduggery interrupted himself and swallowed before he continued. "I am just a little nervous at what we are about to do and... I am even afraid of hurting you in any way. You have to remember that I have not been with another woman in this way since... since I lost my wife several hundreds of years ago." To Valkyrie's big surprise she saw how Skulduggery's cheeks turned red of embarrassment. "What if I... Bah, it's just as good to say it out loud. I am worried that I will not be able to satisfy you!"

She could not help it. Valkyrie started to roar with laughter and she was forced to lay her arms around her stomach when she laughed the most. This she could never have imagined! That the big Skulduggery Pleasant _actually was worried over something!_ "So... Sorry! It's just... that... I never thought... that those words... would come from you... Skulduggery!"

"It is not funny, Valkyrie! I hope that you understand that I take this very seriously! I would not be able to forgive myself if I hurt you under a... let us call it an 'intensive activity'. Especially not when it is your first time." Skulduggery took a steady hold on Valkyrie's wrists and forced her to look into his eyes. "Because it is your first time, aren't I right?"

Valkyrie stopped laughing in the same moment she looked into Skulduggerys eyes. He really took this seriously... She nodded. "Yes, it is my first time and I am _not_ worried that you will _not_ be able to satisfy me. Considering how good you are at everything else you throw yourself into, I think you will have no problems with this, Skulduggery. I totally trust you."

Nothing else but those words were needed. Their lips met once again and it did not take long before Valkyrie could feel Skulduggery's fingers inside of her. She understood that he was warming her up and was filled with even more love towards this skeleton that she had come to love above everything else in this world. That Skulduggery took such time to make her enjoy their love making together was more than she could have begged him of.

"Valkyrie... It might hurt a little in the beginning, but trust me when I say that it will better after a while. I will be careful."

"I know, Skulduggery. I'll let you know if it gets too much, do not worry." Valkyrie smiled and looked Skulduggery deep in his eyes. "Take me, Skulduggery Pleasant."

"With pleasure, Valkyrie Cain..."

He laid his hands around her hips without letting go of her gaze. Slowly he let himself glide inside of her and the feeling made them both moan of pleasure. Valkyrie bent her head backwards and slowly pushed her gender forward to meet up with Skulduggery's. When Skulduggery pushed himself yet a little deeper into her, she felt it as if something inside of her burst and a wave of pain went through her.

Skulduggery stiffened and was about to move himself out of her but Valkyrie laid her legs around his hips to make him stay put. "No... Continue. It will soon disappear. I will not let you get away now, Skulduggery."

As to prove that what she was saying was true, Valkyrie began to slowly move back and forth over Skulduggery's gender. For each new movement the pain disappeared more and more until the only thing she could feel was a pleasure she never thought she would get to experience. The feeling of how Skulduggery filled all of her was simply to wonderful to describe. This was so much better then she could have ever imagined!

"Oh, Valkyrie..." Skulduggery moaned and started to follow in her movements.

Valkyrie laid her arms around Skulduggery's neck and pulled him down into a passionate kiss while she pushed herself harder against him. She wanted to feel him deeper, wanted him to fill whole her with himself. She wanted to feel how they both became one, how they would melt together.

As if Skulduggery had been able to read her thoughts he pressed himself deeper inside of her and Valkyrie moaned high between their kisses when the feeling of how Skulduggery filled her washed over her. Oh, god! He was so good at this... So stupid of Skulduggery to think that he would not be able to satisfy her! "More, Skulduggery... I want more... I am soon there..."

"Your wish is my command..." Skulduggery whispered in her ear and took a harder grip around her before he obliged.

Nothing else existed except for her, Skulduggery and their interlaced bodies. Valkyrie felt it as if she was traveling on an ocean of pleasure and for each new, hard thrust she came closer and closer to the shore. Despite how much she tried to hold it back, she could finally no longer stop it but bent back her head and dug her nails deep into Skulduggery's neck while she screamed out her lovers name in the same moment as the orgasm waves washed over her.

Soon after, she could feel how Skulduggery let go and she held him when he filled her with his seed. They both breathed heavily and when Valkyrie felt she had strength enough, she gave Skulduggery a little kiss on his forehead before leaning back against the pillow. "Wow... That was..."

"Fantastic?"

"I was going to say 'wonderful', but... yes, that was fantastic too. You're a good lover, Skulduggery."

"You sound amazed. I thought it was you who said I was good at everything I did and that I had nothing to worry about?"

"I knew you are a good lover, but not _how_ good. This exceeded my expectations with a great deal, you should know."

"Glad to hear that, Valkyrie." Skulduggery smiled and gave her a kiss before he lay down beside her and pulled her into his arms. Valkyrie crept into his arms and enjoyed the feeling of being embraced by the person you love above all else.

"I hope I did not hurt you?"

"It hurt a bit at first", Valkyrie acknowledged. "Do not worry, it went over fast. Once the pain disappeared, I could do nothing but enjoy."

"I'm still sorry. I had wanted to avoid the pain, but realized that it would be difficult. We can look forward to the next time, then you will not feel any pain, I promise you."

"That sounds good", Valkyrie whispered and smiled mischivously. "I just hope it will not be too long before then..."

Skulduggery laughed and stroked Valkyrie's hip slowly. "You do not have to worry about that, Valkyrie."

Valkyrie closed her eyes and sighed happily. Just as she was about to fall asleep a thought appeared in her head that made her widen her eyes. She looked up at Skulduggery with a splash of fear in her eyes. "Skulduggery... We did not use any protection. Do I have to worry that I may have become pregnant?"

Skulduggery looked down at her, and to her horror he paled. "God dammit..."

* * *

 **Sorry for that! I just couldn't help it ;) I thought it would be fun to end this story with a cliff-hanger, sort of... I'll let you readers decide what happened next. Did they get a little baby Skull or not? :)**


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